A Modelling Relationship between Firm Strategic Advantages and Organizational Edge

The paper show the relationship between firm-specific-advantages (FSA) and how these can aid gaining an organization’s competitive edge in the present turbulent business environment. These firm specific advantages FSAs include Human Capital, Organization Culture, and Organization Structure (Verbeke 2009) and how these can lead towards organizational edge, and to provide a conceptual framework for the analysis of human capital management in learning organizations. Discourse on competitive advantage is of wide prevalence, clear definitions are rare and it is often used interchangeably with concepts like distinctive competence (Day and Wensley, 1988). Advantage is a relative concept (Hu, 1995; Kay, 1993), only meaningful when compared to another entity or set of entities. A competitive advantage, then, is an advantage one firm has over a competitor or group of competitors in a given market, strategic group or industry (Kay, 1993) and this Firm-Specific Advantages is discussed in this paper. Keywords: Human Capital, Competitive Edge, Organization culture, Organization structur

A Modelling Relationship between Firm Strategic Advantages and Organizational Edge

The paper show the relationship between firm-specific-advantages (FSA) and how these can aid gaining an organization’s competitive edge in the present turbulent business environment. These firm specific advantages FSAs include Human Capital, Organization Culture, and Organization Structure (Verbeke 2009) and how these can lead towards organizational edge, and to provide a conceptual framework for the analysis of human capital management in learning organizations. Discourse on competitive advantage is of wide prevalence, clear definitions are rare and it is often used interchangeably with concepts like distinctive competence (Day and Wensley, 1988). Advantage is a relative concept (Hu, 1995; Kay, 1993), only meaningful when compared to another entity or set of entities. A competitive advantage, then, is an advantage one firm has over a competitor or group of competitors in a given market, strategic group or industry (Kay, 1993) and this Firm-Specific Advantages is discussed in this paper

An Empirical Study of Gender Discrimination and Employee Performance among Academic Staff of Government Universities in Lagos State, Nigeria

Research has shown that a recruitment policy devoid of gender discrimination enhances employee performance in an organization. Previous studies in Nigeria show that gender discrimination against men and women based on their ethnic, religious and geographical identity is common. This survey, however, focuses on discrimination against women on the basis of gender and performance in government universities in Lagos State, Nigeria. The model used for this study was developed and tested in which one hundred and eighty seven copies of the questionnaire that were administered to respondents as completed by the academic staff of government universities in Lagos State were retrieved. Pearson correlation and regression were utilized for the analysis of the study, and the result showed that managerial roles based on gender discrimination against women in government universities in Lagos State have affected employee job performance negatively. The study concludes that for as long as gender discrimination rather than merit remains the basis for staff employment into positions of authority in Nigerian Universities, enhanced performance is more likely to elude employees and the educational sector in general

Trans-scrotal single-incision orchidopexy compared with conventional orchidopexy in palpable undescended testis in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital

Background The standard method of treatment of palpable undescended testes is  through inguinal mobilization and a scrotal sub-dartos pouch. Trans-scrotal single-incision orchidopexy may be a suitable alternative.Aim The aim of this study was to assess as to how trans-scrotal orchidopexy compares with conventional orchidopexy in terms of the suitable placement of the testis in a dependent position in the scrotum and the surgical outcome.Patients and methods Forty children with 42 palpable undescended testes were randomly allotted into the conventional and the trans-scrotal orchidopexy groups over an 18-month period. The age, the testicular position, the side involved, the length of the vas gained after isolation and the division of the processus vaginalis, as well as the placement of the testes in the sub-dartos pouch without tension, were recorded. Postoperative complications and the subjective score of the cosmetic appearance of the scars during follow-up for at least 6 months. Success was defined as suitable placement of the testes in the sub-dartos pouch during operation, no conversion of patients in the single-orchidopexy group to the conventional inguinal approach, no complications and excellent cosmetic appearance of scars.Results The two study groups were well matched for age and testicular positions. About 22 (55%) patients had rightsided undescended testes and 16 (40%) had left-sided undescended testes, and in two (5%) patients, it was bilateral. All testes were satisfactorily placed in the subdartos pouch at surgery. Testicular retraction  was observed in one patient in the conventional group, but in two patients in the trans-scrotal group. All wounds healed satisfactorily without infection. The overall wound complication rate in the trans-scrotal and the conventional groups were 2/21 and 3/21, respectively. In terms of the cosmetic appearance of the scar, patients in the trans-scrotal group had excellent cosmetic appearance as the scars were less visible and hidden in the rugal fold compared with the conventional method.Conclusion Trans-scrotal orchidopexy for palpable undescended testis is simple, safe and has a better cosmetic scar compared with the conventional approachKeywords: conventional, orchidopexy, testis, trans-scrota

Patriotism in Nation-Building: A Study of Brigadier-General Benjamin Adekunle, also Known as the Black Scorpion

This article used data from descriptive background to examine the person of late Brigadier-General Benjamin Adekunle, the icon of the Nigerian civil war on the subject of patriotism in nation-building. Also, it delved into his life history. The study equally explored his unbeatable military strategies that granted victory to Nigeria during the civil war. Further to that, the study examined various criticisms levied against him on humanitarian grounds, mostly by the secessionists, using some of the existing literature on patriotism and on nation-building. The study concluded that The Back Scorpion was not a wicked person but a patriot par excellence

Posterior urethral valves in fraternal twins: case report and review of the literature

We report a pair of dizygotic twins with type 1 posterior urethral valves. Concomitant and discordant presentation of posterior urethral valves in twins is rare, with a handful of cases in the literature. The occurrence of identical pathology in dizygotic twins probably suggests the possibility of an inherited trait as it does exist in monozygotic twins.Keywords: fraternal twins, identical pathology, inherited trait, posterior urethral valve

Violent Protest in Private Universities in Nigeria: Implications for Educational Development

Previous studies attest to violent protest in the public universities in Nigeria, but articles on student unrest in the private sector have not been explored in academic literature. Upon this background, this article used data from descriptive source (library, newspapers and internet materials) to address this social problem. Therefore, it examined a number of existing factors that prompted the origin of violent protests among students and the implications it portends to educational development in the country. The study equally discussed doctrines guiding the operation of private Faith-Based universities, which students may not want to align with, but are very germane to the actualization of their visions as well as success of students, who passed through them. Finally, the study proposed the way forward for the management and students of these institutions

Intentional Turnover of the Administrative Staff in a Private Faith-Based Higher Institution, Southwest Nigeria

This study examined the problem of turnover intention among the administrative personnel in a Private Faith-Based higher institution, Southwest Nigeria, focusing on the fringe benefits accrued to them and fringe benefits not accrued to them. Given this, the study investigated the comfortability of the administrative officers working with inadequate fringe benefits. It also investigated factors that make administrative officers prone to voluntary turnover and gender composition of the affected personnel. The questionnaire was used to collect information from respondents (N=231). Drawing from data retrieved from records, the study came out with 14 fringe benefits accrued to the administrative staff and 14 fringe benefits not accrued to them. Examination of the result reveals that a majority (86.6%) of the respondents were not comfortable working without adequate fringe benefits as against 7.8% who were comfortable. The Chi-Square statistical instrument was used to test the only hypothesis formulated. The p-value was observed to be statistically significant at p =.000 < .01 (1% level of significance)for the variable responses. Therefore, the alternate hypothesis was accepted. The study also revealed 8 factors that make the administrative staff prone to voluntary turnover. Lastly, data retrieved from descriptive background showed that male administrative officers were more involved in voluntary turnover than their female counterparts

Research trends on CAPTCHA: A systematic literature

The advent of technology has crept into virtually all sectors and this has culminated in automated processes making use of the Internet in executing various tasks and actions. Web services have now become the trend when it comes to providing solutions to mundane tasks. However, this development comes with the bottleneck of authenticity and intent of users. Providers of these Web services, whether as a platform, as a software or as an Infrastructure use various human interaction proof’s (HIPs) to validate authenticity and intent of its users. Completely automated public turing test to tell computer and human apart (CAPTCHA), a form of IDS in web services is advantageous. Research into CAPTCHA can be grouped into two -CAPTCHA development and CAPTCH recognition. Selective learning and convolutionary neural networks (CNN) as well as deep convolutionary neural network (DCNN) have become emerging trends in both the development and recognition of CAPTCHAs. This paper reviews critically over fifty article publications that shows the current trends in the area of the CAPTCHA scheme, its development and recognition mechanisms and the way forward in helping to ensure a robust and yet secure CAPTCHA development in guiding future research endeavor in the subject domain

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF A SUSTAINABLE HYBRID HEATING SYSTEM IN A GREEN INFRASTRUCTURAL BUILDING

Traditional energy production from fossil fuel conversion process creates negative environmental impact and affects human health. Thus, the usage of solar space heating piques the interest of several countries and organizations because it can reduce fossil energy consumption and is environmentally friendly. This paper conducted a comparative study between the advantages and impacts of using a sustainable Hybrid Heating System (HHS) and a Conventional Heating System (CHS) in an infrastructural building. The Centre for the Built Environment and Infrastructure Studies (CBEIS), a GOLD LEED-certified building of Morgan State University (MSU) is currently using an HHS for heating and cooling of electricity production. Several testing and analysis were used to compare and evaluate the performance and advantages of the HHS. The results showed that HHS has a significant edge over the CHS and was able to reduce the annual cost of the electric bill for almost $25,000. The statistical results and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) confirmed that there was a significant difference during the months of winter and summer season in determining how much Kilowatt (kW) produced during the process