Sustainability on the Horizon? An investigation into Sustainable Banking Practices in an Emerging Economy

Purpose: This study investigates sustainability practices in the banking industry, focusing on a developing economy. It employs the triple-bottom-line framework to answer the following research question: How do banks in Nigeria conceptualise sustainability, and what role does it play in their banking practices? Design/approach/methodology: This study adopts a social constructivist approach in its exploration of banking sustainability practices in an emerging economy, and the research design is a purpose-based (exploratory) approach. The qualitative data was collected from 33 bank personnel from various bank units and departments through semi-structured interviews in order to achieve the research objective. Findings: The study reveals a lack of sustainability policies and programmes, as banks focus mainly on profitability. It uncovers unfair treatments of bank workers through casualisation, low wages, and work overload. It indicates that most banks in developing countries ignore environmental considerations, as they still carry out paper-based transactions and use dieselpowered generators, which cause various negative environmental impacts. It also confirms that governments and banks in the country are not doing enough to propagate sustainable practices and banks have also not taken advantage of the sustainability concept to promote their brands; instead, they consider it as requiring additional operational costs. Practical implications: The findings demonstrate the need for banks to see sustainability from a marketing point of view and adopt sustainable practices to create additional value that will improve their brand image and enhance their competitiveness. Originality/value: The importance of sustainability in the banking industry in emerging economies is considered a viable means of contributing to the overall development goals of the United Nations as the world tries to preserve the environment. It also highlights the consequences of inaction or unsustainable banking practices

Trust, Religiosity, and Relationship Marketing: A Conceptual Overview of Consumer Brand Loyalty

Purpose: Over the years, a considerable depth of research has established the link between trust, commitment and relationship marketing and its relevance to consumers’ brand preferences. Nonetheless, there is a dearth of research on how they are linked to religiosity. Accordingly, this is the palpable gap addressed in this paper. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is conceptual and draws from the eclectic review of the extant literature that revolves around the key themes associated with the topic. Findings: The article emphasises the significance of trust and religiosity in consumers’ commitment to specific market offerings and brands which invariably strengthens relationship marketing. A model entitled Brand, Faith Relationship model (BFR) is proposed to understand brand positioning in the marketplace in relation to faith. With this model, a four categories typology of brand position scenarios is suggested in this paper. (1) Passive Brand, Faith relationship, (2) Faith trust established in the absence of brands, (3) Brand Loyalty without any Faith associations, and (4) Brand Loyalty, with Positive Brand, Faith relationship. Research limitations/implications: Practical implications: This paper has significant implications for brand management in relation to segmentation, targeting, and the positioning of brands in the marketplace. It also raises marketers’ consciousness on the potency of trust embedded in consumers’ faith/religiosity in their brand preferences. Originality/value: This paper explores the concepts of trust and consumers’ brand choices within the relationship marketing literature vis-à-vis the role of religion which is rarely examined

Facial recognition using deep learning

In this article, the researcher presented the results of recognition of four emotional states (happy, sad, angry, and disgust) based on facial expressions. A deep learning method with a Convolutional Neural Network algorithm for recognizing problems has been proven very effective way to overcome the recognition problem. A comparative study is carried out using MUAD3D dataset from Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak for evaluating accuracy performance of this dataset. More discussion is provided to prove the effectiveness of the Convolutional Neural Network in recognition problems

Effects of fermented soya bean supplements on lipid profile and oxidative stress biomarkers in high fat diet-induced Type 2 diabetes mellitus in rabbits

Background: High fat diets are known to increase body weight and fat mass, induce alterations in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, leading to insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of fermented soya bean supplements on lipid profile and oxidative stress biomarkers in high fat diet-induced type 2 diabetes mellitus in rabbits.Methods: Twenty rabbits weighing between 1kg – 2kg were used for the study. Type 2 diabetes mellitus was induced by feeding the animals with high fat diet (2% cholesterol, 20% groundnut meal, 10% groundnut oil) for eight weeks. Rabbits having fasting blood glucose levels of 7.2 mmol/L (130mg/dL) and above after the induction period were selected for the study. The animals were grouped into four groups of five rabbits each: Group 1 (diabetic control), received distilled water ad libitum for six weeks; groups 2, 3 and 4 (diabetic rabbits) were fed with 12.5%, 25% and 50% fermented soya bean supplements respectively for six weeks. Thereafter, the rabbits were sacrificed and blood samples obtained for analyses. Data were analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA).Results: There was a significant decrease (p ≤ 0.05) in triglyceride and LDL concentrations in the group fed 50% fermented soya bean supplements and a significant increase in HDL levels (p ≤ 0.05) in all the fermented soya bean supplemented groups when compared with the diabetic control group. The result also showed a significant decrease (p ≤ 0.05) in malondialdehyde concentration in all the treated groups when compared with the control group. Superoxide dismutase was significantly decreased in the group fed 12.5% and 25% fermented soya bean supplements while catalase was significantly decreased in the group fed 12.5% fermented soya bean supplement when compared with the control group.Conclusion: Fermented soya bean supplements decreased lipid profile and improved antioxidant activities in diabetic rabbits and may prove beneficial in the management of hyperlipidaemia and oxidative stress in diabetic patients.Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, fermented soya beans, high fat diet, hyperlipidaemia, lipid profile, oxidative stress biomarker

Detection and Evaluation of Effective of Digital Communication of Drug on Human Body

Nowadays, there is a wide using of mobile and internet from various ages, due to some bad systems which they work to send signals(sound wave frequency) within the music or will be spread to affect the brain of the humankind. Therefore, this paper expresses thedetection and evaluation of (the signal of sound frequency) which influence the human brain, it has been measured some frequency byprogramming in the mobile and found a trend to detect such frequencies and a way to produce a human being from it

“Digging Deeper” into the Relationship Between Safety Climate and Turnover Intention Among Stone, Sand and Gravel Mine Workers: Job Satisfaction as a Mediator

Employee turnover has been linked to negative business performance outcomes, increased costs, and disruptions to operations. Research to explore predictors of turnover intention is important to the mining industry, including the stone, sand, and gravel mining (SSGM) industry. Safety climate has been linked to job satisfaction and reductions in turnover intention in other fields, but investigation within SSGM has virtually been non-existent, creating a knowledge gap. This research seeks to address this dearth of information. Cross-sectional data from 452 workers in the SSGM industry were analyzed to assess the influence of safety climate on turnover intention through job satisfaction. Mediation analyses showed that job satisfaction significantly mediated the relationship between safety climate and turnover intention. The implications of these novel findings are important for SSGM administrators. It suggests that bolstering safety programs and increasing safety climate perceptions will help increase job satisfaction and reduce turnover intention among workers in the SSGM industry

Effect of Knives Type on Some Operational Characteristics fora Locally Assembly Motorized Vibration Cutter Used for Date Palm Fronds Pruning

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of pruning cutting knives for locally assembly motorized vibration cutter on some operational characteristic used for date palm fronds. An implement was fabricated to cut the fronds around the date palm tree trunk. Three types of knife included A,B and Cwas used in this study .One frond cutting time, One palm frond cutting time, cutting level,productivity, noise level, vibration and efficiency was measured in this experiment . Complete block design with three replications was used in this study. Least significant differences (L.S.D) under 0.05 level was used to compeer the mean of treatment. The results showed thatB type gave a lower time in cutting one frond stood 3.11 sec. A type got lowest time of cutting three rows of fronds stood 1.74 min, also gave less differences in surface cutting level andlevel of noising stood 5.66 mm and 78.04 (db) respectively.B type knife got less vibration stood 5.25 m.sec-2. Also it gave the higher amount of productivitystood 8.80 palm /h. A type gave a high efficiency, it got 78.76%.Using manufacturing equipment for cutting date palm frond was successfully done

Adequacy and Availability of Instructional Materials for Teaching Business Education Students Office Management Skills in Public Colleges of Education in Niger State, Nigeria

In Niger State's public colleges of education, the study looked at how well and easily accessible instructional materials were for teaching business education students office management skills. The study formulated two null hypotheses and two research questions were raised. The researchers review some previous research work that is related to the current study. The researcher looked at a lot of literature from books, journals, magazines, special reports, the internet, and other sources. The researchers used a survey research design to carry out this study. For this study, sixty-seven (67) lecturers of Business Education from public Colleges Education in Niger State form the inhabitants of the study. There was no sample size because the total inhabitants of the study was very small. A study instrument with the title: For the purpose of data collection, the phrase "Adequacy and Availability of Instructional Materials for Teaching Office Management Skills (AAIMTOMS)" was used. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions raised in carry out this study, and t-test statistics were used to test the two null hypotheses formulated for this study at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed among other things, that two of the ten identified instructional materials were neither adequate nor available for teaching office management skills to business education students in Niger State's public colleges of education. It was concluded in this study that the government, school administrators, and other stakeholders in secondary education should make available adequate instructional materials for teaching office management skills in business education in Colleges of Education in Niger State so as to make the recipient of the programme better in the world of work

Removal of Copper (II) from Wastewater Using Modified Carbon Nanotubes

In the present work, carbon nanotubes were prepared by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) method, acetylene gas was used as a carbon source. In CVD system, a catalytic growth of CNTs is carried out by decomposition of acetylene (C2H2 ) at a temperature of 750 0C for one hour ,argon is used as an oxidation protection gas. The carbon nanotubes produced are purified to remove impurities such as metal catalyst and then functionalized by treating with HNO3. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), FT-IR spectra and BET for Surface Area measurement technique were used for characterization of CNTs. CNTs with about 30 nm in diameter and with length of several microns were obtained. The effects of initial concentration of metal (ppm), pH, carbon nanotube (CNT) dosage (mg) and contact time (min) on the adsorption of Cu+2 ion were studied. The results show that the pH of aqueous solution is one of the major parameters that control the adsorption of ion at the solid-water interfaces. Maximum removal percentage of Cu+2 species is achieved at pH 8, CNT dosage of 50 mg/L and initial concentration of 50 mg/L and it is 98.39%. The constants of Langmuir and Freundlich models are obtained from fitting the adsorption equilibrium data. The correlation coefficients of Langmuir and Freundlich models are 0.75 and 1, respectively, indicating that the Freundlich model is more appropriate to describe the adsorption characteristics of Cu+2 onto CNTs