Lack of Infrastructure as a Challenge to the Actualization of Vision 2020 in Nigeria

The study highlighted the importance of required infrastructures such as energy as a panacea to the realization of the objectives and goals of Vision 2020 in Nigeria. With the dearth of infrastructures, the move towards stability and consolidation in the polity may not be feasible. In the light of these, the importance of vision 20:2020 as a catalyst to the industrial development of the country and the placement of the nation in a central location within the comity of nations becomes imperative. It is in this instance that the millennium development goals (mdg) become realizable and of relevance in the achievement of the macro- economic objectives of government. Consequently ,the need to be well positioned in the provision of social amenities for the benefit of the citizens becomes a - must do for managers at all levels of governance and this determines to a reasonable extent the way forward for economic and technological breakthrough of the less developed economies such as Nigeri

Sicilian Protected Areas Among Tourist Exploitation and Environmental Guardianship

This report pursues the objective to define the connection that ties exploitation of the environment quality in the protected areas and the opportunities of economic and tourist development. Sicilian protected areas involve a territory full of an extraordinary variety and concentration of historical, artistic and environmental resources, so that they represent one of the main tourist attractions of the Island. Unfortunately, the Sicilian protected areas system shows serious backwardnesses, so that the prevailing image is one of wide zones in state of abandonment and degrade. It needs to start a process of investments and programmes in order to realize an integration between both the basical aims of environmental safeguard and the promotion of sustainable touristic and economic activities. The report presents a brief description of protected areas’ features, as long as considering protected territories as an instrument of local economic and social development. The second part of the paper is focused on the main features of the Sicilian protected areas system, in order to highlight the matters concerning the tourist-recreational exploitation of the protected territories in a sustainable viewpoint.

Treatment and valorization plants in materials recovery supply chain

Aim of industrial symbiosis is to create synergies between industries in order to exchange resources (by-products, water and energy) through geographic proximity and collaboration [1]. By optimizing resource flows in a “whole-system approach”, a minimization of dangerous emissions and of supply needs can be achieved. Resources exchanges are established to facilitate recycling and re-use of industrial waste using a commercial vehicle. Several paths can be identified in order to establish an industrial symbiosis network (Figure 1, left), in relation (i) to the life cycle phase (raw material, component, product) and (ii) to the nature (material, water, energy) of the resource flows to be exchanged. Sometimes by-products and/or waste of an industrial process have to be treated and valorized in order to become the raw materials for others. In particular, two main treatment processes can be identified: refurbishment/upgrade for re-use (Figure 1, center) and recycling for material recovery (Figure 1, right). A brief overview of technological and economic aspects is given, together with their relevance to industrial symbiosis

MEASURES TO REDUCE THE HIGH INCIDENCE OF STRUCTURAL FAILURES IN NIGERIA

Within the last few decades, Nigeria has been experiencing a great transformation in terms of population growth and the provisions of developmental facilities for the wellbeing of the masses. The built environmental sector was not left out in the process. This is because the construction of houses and infrastructures are essential to man next as air, water, and food (Salau, 1996). These structures served as residences, places of work, worship, entertainment, as means of transportation, etc. As the population and economic activities continued to explode, the demand became more pressing. This justified the massive housing and infrastructural development that has been going on in the urban and rural areas of the country in the recent times. But an embarrassing feature of our building and infrastructural developmental strive is the failure rate verified among the existing structures and those under construction. The cost of these collapses, in terms of human life and economic waste, cannot be over emphasized. As the effect of the global warming began to take its toll in many parts of the world, including Nigeria, the need to arrest this ugly situation in our built environment becomes very expedient (Ede, 2010). In light of these issues, this paper analyses the problems of structural integrity in Nigeria as the environmental setup worsens and proffers measures bordering on the improved professionalism and craftsmanship that will reduce the menace drastically

Position paper on realizing smart products: challenges for Semantic Web technologies

In the rapidly developing space of novel technologies that combine sensing and semantic technologies, research on smart products has the potential of establishing a research field in itself. In this paper, we synthesize existing work in this area in order to define and characterize smart products. We then reflect on a set of challenges that semantic technologies are likely to face in this domain. Finally, in order to initiate discussion in the workshop, we sketch an initial comparison of smart products and semantic sensor networks from the perspective of knowledge technologies

Autonomic computing architecture for SCADA cyber security

Cognitive computing relates to intelligent computing platforms that are based on the disciplines of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other innovative technologies. These technologies can be used to design systems that mimic the human brain to learn about their environment and can autonomously predict an impending anomalous situation. IBM first used the term ‘Autonomic Computing’ in 2001 to combat the looming complexity crisis (Ganek and Corbi, 2003). The concept has been inspired by the human biological autonomic system. An autonomic system is self-healing, self-regulating, self-optimising and self-protecting (Ganek and Corbi, 2003). Therefore, the system should be able to protect itself against both malicious attacks and unintended mistakes by the operator

The Italian Mezzogiorno: From a "National Matter" to an "European Opportunity"

The aim of the paper is to analyze the present economic conditions of Southern Italy, particularly regarding the actual competitiveness of this region and possible future developments. We will outline the various features of Southern Italy economy giving emphasis to those limiting its competitiveness and, subsequently, suggesting opportune ways to improve it. Besides an opportunity coming from the international economic scenario, Southern Italy also has a great chance for its development from its traditional sectors. Moreover, it has really important environmental and cultural capitals which, besides an important touristical attractive, represent a potential of competitiveness able to start up development processes. The geographical position of Southern Italy can also bring significant advantages: Mezzogiorno is right in the middle of the mediterranean area which is showing high development potentials and is itself a large potential market. Regarding the institutional and political context, the governmental capacity of local administrations has improved over the last years and they started to pay more attention to increasing and promoting territories’ resources. There has also been a major ability to face criminality and corruption and a new “social disapproval†towards illegal phenomena is growing. Among weaknesses the infrastructural endowment still seems to be inadequate. Transportation infrastructures present low integration between the different modalities with the consequence of difficult reachable market outflows. Logistic systems are still underdeveloped. Negative features are also present within the productive system. Traditional businesses with scarce innovation capacity are still too strong and generally the whole system is not improving network connections and scales economy. Then bureaucracy, even though much less than in the past, is an obstacle especially regarding the start-up of new firms. A big threat is represented by the growing competitiveness of developing countries in some traditional sectors of Mezzogiorno production. Final recommendations will result from the analysis of the actual and perspective economic situation compared with the main developments of global economy.

Cascading Digital Options and the Evolution of Digital Infrastructures: The Case of IIoT

Digital infrastructures provide a space where possibilities for innovation continuously emerge. They are not stable entities but are evolving. Their boundaries are subject to constant negotiation among multiple organizational actors as well as changing connections of digital technologies, operations, and users. In this paper, we explore the evolution of an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) infrastructure in a leading manufacturing company. We find that the IIoT infrastructure provided actionable spaces upon which organizational actors discovered opportunities for improving process performance which, in turn, led to investment decisions. We explain this process through the lens of digital options theory and highlight how IIoT infrastructure provides the material foundation for the identification of digital options, how the realization of digital options leads to the emergence of more digital options, and how these “cascading” digital options are implicated in the evolution of IIoT infrastructure. We discuss theoretical and practical implications