Breakthrough Propulsion Study: Assessing Interstellar Flight Challenges and Prospects

Progress toward developing an evaluation process for interstellar propulsion and power options is described. The goal is to contrast the challenges, mission choices, and emerging prospects for propulsion and power, to identify which prospects might be more advantageous and under what circumstances, and to identify which technology details might have greater impacts. Unlike prior studies, the infrastructure expenses and prospects for breakthrough advances are included. This first year's focus is on determining the key questions to enable the analysis. Accordingly, a work breakdown structure to organize the information and associated list of variables is offered. A flow diagram of the basic analysis is presented, as well as more detailed methods to convert the performance measures of disparate propulsion methods into common measures of energy, mass, time, and power. Other methods for equitable comparisons include evaluating the prospects under the same assumptions of payload, mission trajectory, and available energy. Missions are divided into three eras of readiness (precursors, era of infrastructure, and era of breakthroughs) as a first step before proceeding to include comparisons of technology advancement rates. Final evaluation "figures of merit" are offered. Preliminary lists of mission architectures and propulsion prospects are provided

Practices, Challenges, and Prospects of Big Data Curation: a Case Study in Geoscience

Open and persistent access to past, present, and future scientific data is fundamental for transparent and reproducible data-driven research. The scientific community is now facing both challenges and opportunities caused by the growingly complex disciplinary data systems. Concerted efforts from domain experts, information professionals, and Internet technology experts are essential to ensure the accessibility and interoperability of the big data. Here we review current practices in building and managing big data within the context of large data infrastructure, using geoscience cyberinfrastructure such as Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance (IEDA) and EarthCube as a case study. Geoscience is a data-rich discipline with a rapid expansion of sophisticated and diverse digital data sets. Having started to embrace the digital age, the community have applied big data and data mining tools into the new type of research. We also identified current challenges, key elements, and prospects to construct a more robust and future-proof big data infrastructure for research and publication for the future, as well as the roles, qualifications, and opportunities for librarians/information professionals in the data era

Farmer challenge-derived indicators for assessing sustainability of low-input ruminant production systems in sub-Saharan Africa

The process of consulting stakeholders, particularly farmers, in developing appropriate indicators for sustainability evaluation of low-input ruminant systems is often compromised by limited awareness and understanding of the sustainability concept by farmers in developing countries. Insights from farmers’ challenges present useful prospects for developing context-specific sustainability evaluation indicators for low-input ruminant systems. In the present review, a meta-analysis was used to develop farmer challenge-derived indicators for the sustainability evaluation of low-input ruminant farming system in sub-Saharan Africa. Key ecological challenges reported were low forage quality, poor soil quality, feed shortages and; economic challenges were low poor marketing structure, high cost of labour, and poor transport network, poor marketing infrastructure; and social challenges were rural to urban migration, lack of animal breeding management and inadequate access to information. The corresponding derived ecological indicators were biomass quality, soil quality, high winds; economic indicators were available marketing infrastructure, labour costs, transport networks; and social indicators were rural to urban migration, animal management training and access to information. The review shows that farmers’ challenges can be transformed to indicators for assessing the sustainability of the low-input ruminant farming system in sub-Saharan Africa.The Department of Science and Technology-National Research Foundation (DST-NRF) Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Food Security.http://www.journals.elsevier.com/environmental-and-sustainability-indicatorshj2020Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS

Prospects of ICT for digital growth and national development in Nigeria

The study was aimed at identifying the prospects of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for digital growth and National development. The research adopted a descriptive research methodology where a field survey was conducted. The population of the study comprised of Information and communication technology professionals in Nigeria. Furthermore, 100 information and communication technology professionals were purposively sampled from the academia and the industry, thus making the sample size 100. The instrument for primary data collection was a ten-point questionnaire. The result from the study identified artificial intelligence, robotics, cloud computing, ubiquitous computing, Internet of Things, big data analytics and block chain technology as key ICTs technologies that are driving the digital economy, fostering digital growth and national development. The study further revealed the prospects of ICTs for digital growth and National Development in Nigeria to include; increase in revenue, elimination of the black economy, reduction in corruption; increase in trust, privacy and integrity. These prospects however are hindered by some challenges identified in the study to include; Poor infrastructure, Policy implementation issues, high cost of ICTs, irregular access to ICTs, bureaucratic bottle necks, skills gaps and cyber security issues. The study therefore recommended in-depth analysis into finding solutions for the challenges facing digitalization in Nigeria as a way of ensuring Nigeria queues in fully into the fourth industrial revolution.Keywords: Digital Growth, ICT, National Development, Digital Economies, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Nigeri

Electronic Banking in Nigeria: Concepts, Challenges and Prospects

This study reviewed the concept of electronic banking (e banking), examined its prospects for Nigerian banks and discussed associated risks. It discovered that the increased application of e banking worldwide is a function of improvement in information and communications technology (ICT). E banking, it also observed, holds enormous potentials for the banking industry in Nigeria. To achieve these potentials, the paper advocated engendering confidence in the e banking mechanism by addressing security concerns and providing necessary infrastructure like steady electric power supply. Key words: Eectronic banking, Concepts, Challenges, Prospect

Promoting Sustainable Development through ICT in Developing Countries

This paper outlines how ICTS in general will promote sustainable development in developing countries. This can be promoted through acquiring ICT skills in various ways which include: software development commercial outfit, computer training maintenance, networking and internet service as well as enhancing teaching and learning activities. Also the paper revealed the possibilities for locating independent working environment through ICT facilities such as economic sustainability, social sustainability, and political sustainability. It also looks at the possible challenges of implementing ICT such as lacks of maintenance culture, budgetary constrain, and infrastructure related problems. Finally the paper emphasized that proper utilization of ICTs is necessary for promoting sustainable development in developing countries Keywords: Information Communication Technology (ICT) skills, sustainable development, prospects and challenges

Challenges and Prospects of Private Higher Education in Nigeria

The study's primary purpose was to explore the challenges and prospects of private higher education in Nigeria. Private Higher Education (PrHE) in Africa has grown significantly in recent years, and Nigeria has been at the forefront of this trend. The desk research was used to gather information and data from sources such as books, journals, reports, databases, and online resources, including relevant websites. It is a cost-effective way to collect data relevant to the research topic, aims & objectives. PrHE in Nigeria is an integral part of the African higher education landscape, proliferating in response to the increasing demand for higher education. As a result, PrHE in Nigeria has bright prospects to contribute significantly to the continent's development in terms of HE and economy. However, PrHE in Nigeria faces several challenges: high tuition fees, limited funding, shortage of qualified and experienced academic staff, lack of government support, inadequate infrastructure and concerns about quality and accreditation. Of course, these challenges are not unique to Nigeria, but they are significant. They will need to be addressed if PrHE in Africa in general, particularly in Nigeria, is to continue to grow and thrive

Working Paper 36 - Information Technology and the Challenge of Economic Growth in Africa

The recent advances in information technology are becoming central to the process of socio-economic development. Information technology offers new ways of exchanging information, and transacting business, changes the nature of the financial and other service sectors and provides efficient means of using the human and institutional capabilities of countries in both the public and private sectors. The world is rapidly moving towards knowledge-based economic structures and information societies, which comprise networks of individuals, firms and countries that are linked electronically and in interdependent relationships. In an increasingly globalized economy, information technology is one of the key determinants of competitiveness and growth of firms and countries. Firms are becoming more competitive on the basis of their knowledge, rather than on the basis of natural endowments or low labor costs. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the role of traditional sources of comparative advantage (a large labor force and abundant natural resources) in determining international competitiveness is diminishing. The competitive and comparative advantages of countries are gradually being determined by access to information technology and knowledge. The comparative advantage that now counts is man-made, engineered by knowledge through the application of information. Since man-made comparative advantage can only be acquired by knowledge and brainpower, the newly emerging knowledge-based economic structures have far reaching implications with regard to labor markets and the roles of technical education, human capital formation and research and development in the process of economic growth. The evolution of the knowledge-based economy is expected to result in increasing the demand for skilled labor and reducing the employment prospects of unskilled labor. And within economies, enterprises would succeed only to the extent that their employees can access and use information and knowledge effectively. Information technology does not only determine the market share and profitability of individual companies in tomorrow's global economy, but it also has a huge impact on future generations of workers and on a country's economic prospects. What are the implications of information technology for the relative fortunes of nations? Countries that invest in and adopt information technology quickly will move ahead and those that fail to rapidly adopt information technology will be left behind. The views on the possible impact of the information revolution on African countries can be grouped in two opposing schools of thought. The first school predicts that as African countries incur an increasing 'technological deficit' the welfare gap between them and the industrialized world would increase. This school stresses that Africa risks further reduction in its ability to generate the resources necessary to accelerate its growth rate and reverse the trend of increasing poverty. On the other hand, the second school believe that information technology may actually help reduce the income gaps between rich and poor countries. In the words of Negroponte (1998): "the Third World five years from now may not be where you think it is. There have been many theories of leapfrog development, none of which has yet survived the test of time. That's about to change". The basic issue separating the two schools with regard to the impact of information technology on African countries is the question of whether Africa and other developing regions could, in the first place have adequate access to the global information Infrastructure, and hence to the information technology age. The prediction of the first school stems from the notion that, starting from an initial position of poverty, African countries would not be able to finance the investments in information infrastructure and computer hardware and software required to access the information technology age. This would, in turn, mean that they would risk increased marginalization in the global economy with severe competitive disadvantage for their goods and services, and hence for their development prospects. The prediction of the second school is based on the argument that the information technology, itself, would provide the means for countries to turn their disadvantages into advantages; adjust to the new ways of doing business; and, put in place the required infrastructure of telecommunications and information systems. This paper reviews Africa's development challenges in an increasingly information and knowledge-based global economy. It outlines the roles of knowledge and information technology in addressing these challenges and also discusses the strategies and policies that Africa and its development partners particularly the African Development Bank could adopt to accelerate the process of integrating the region into the emerging global information system. The paper is organized in five sections. Following this introduction, the next section examines the major developmental challenges facing Africa and what role information technology could play in overcoming them. Section III outlines the policies that would need to be adopted by African countries to improve their information accessibility and examines the initiatives taken by African countries in this domain. Section IV examines the role that could be played by the African Development Bank Group. The conclusion of the paper is provided in the last section.

On Critical Infrastructure Protection and International Agreements

This paper evaluates the prospects for protecting critical social functions from “cyber” attacks carried out over electronic information networks. In particular, it focuses on the feasibility of devising international laws, conventions or agreements to deter and/or punish perpetrators of such attacks. First,it briefly summarizes existing conventions and laws, and explains to which technological issues they can apply. The paper then turns to a technical discussion of the threats faced by critical infrastructure. By distinguishing between the different types of attacks (theft of information, destructive penetration, denial of service, etc.) that can be conducted, and examining the role of collateral damages in information security, the paper identifies the major challenges in devising and implementing international conventions for critical infrastructure protection. It then turns to a practical examination of how these findings apply to specific instances of critical networks (power grids and water systems, financial infrastructure, air traffic control and hospital networks), and draws conclusions about potential remedies. A notable finding is that critical functions should be isolated from non-critical functions in the network to have a chance to implement viable international agreements; and that, given the difficulty in performing attack attribution, other relevant laws should be designed with the objective of reducing negative externalities that facilitate such attacks