RE-ENGINEERING THE NDDC’S MASTER PLAN: AN ANALYTICAL APPROACH

This paper examined the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)’s master plan, which promised different programmes such as: employment generation, education, and health, among others. The authors reviewed competing analysis of the extant development policies and conclude that the NDDC’s master plan is not radically different from the extant policies and may aggravate the antimonies to development in the region. If lasting solution to the lingering crisis in the Niger Delta is desired, it is essential to positively utilize combined powers of local organizations. Ultimately, rather than romancing with military and political approaches that have not engendered sustainable development, the people who live with and whose lives are directly affected by the Niger Delta crisis should be reckoned with in arresting the crisis and positively transforming the region

The Usefulness of Multilevel Hash Tables with Multiple Hash Functions in Large Databases

In this work, attempt is made to select three good hash functions which uniformly distribute hash values that permute their internal states and allow the input bits to generate different output bits. These functions are used in different levels of hash tables that are coded in Java Programming Language and a quite number of data records serve as primary data for testing the performances. The result shows that the two-level hash tables with three different hash functions give a superior performance over one-level hash table with two hash functions or zero-level hash table with one function in term of reducing the conflict keys and quick look-up for a particular element. The result assists to reduce the complexity of join operation in query language from O(n2) to O(1) by placing larger query result, if any, in multilevel hash tables with multiple hash functions and generate shorter query result

Relationship between students’ STEM interests and future career aspirations

Abstract. Despite the crucial role of STEM professionals in the economic and technological development of nations, including Finland, there is a lack of student motivation to pursue STEM-related careers. To address this issue, this study investigates the factors that contribute to compulsory basic school students’ career aspirations in STEM fields, with emphasis on understanding different groups of students based on their STEM career aspirations, preferred information sources, and perceived characteristics of future professions. The data for this study was collected from 1454 grade 8 students, aged 14 to 15 years old, who are enrolled in Finland’s nine-year primary and secondary compulsory basic education. A Likert scale questionnaire was used to gather the data, and analysis included mean, standard deviation, cluster analysis, and Kruskal-Wallis test. The findings revealed that students were divided into three types of STEM career interests (No STEM, medical STEM, and general STEM). Moreover, workplace visits and TET practices were the most preferred sources of information for students in both STEM career aspiration groups, while counselling outside school was the least preferred. The study’s findings also show that medical STEM students prefer jobs that involve working with and assisting people, whereas general STEM students prefer jobs that promote technological development. The study emphasizes the importance of educating teachers and guidance counsellors about STEM careers, incorporating students’ interests into STEM curricula, and developing effective interventions for future careers in STEM

Aspiring Vice-Chancellors’ rhetoric and the challenges of building a 21st century Nigerian University

This study analyses the manifestos prepared by some candidates aspiring for the post of Vice-Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile- Ife, Nigeria, between 1999 and 2000. It examines the appropriation of rhetorical tactics by the aspirants to impress upon the target audience that they possess the ability to clearly decipher the problems of the university and determine the required antidote. The study focuses on two major issues that are recurrent in the discourse: the challenges facing the university at the turn of the twenty-first century and the kind of leadership that the university would desire to stem the tide. It adopts Aristotle’s model of rhetoric to analyse the discursive practices of the respective candidates relative to these key issues. It reveals that although the candidates address the same range of subjects, they still, at some point, employ varied rhetorical appeals to manipulate the target audience. Such appeals generally, however, still fall within the range of the rhetoric of political campaign, but they are strategically chosen to reflect the context of the discourse.Keywords: Manifesto, Nigeria, Political campaign, Rhetoric, University, Vice-Chancello

Trends and Future Directions in Open and Distance Learning Practice in Africa

Open and Distance Learning (ODL), formerly known as Distance Education (DE) is one of the most rapidly growing fields of education in recent time. Distance education has experienced remarkable growth in national and international scenes since the early 1980s. In spite of recent phenomenal developments in the world of electronic networks, especially the recent global attention to the Internet, which has provided the primary technological thrust, several other emerging technologies have also promised to change the landscape of education in general, and distance education in particular drastically. The field of distance education is therefore, at the centre of dynamic growth and change. This paper focuses on current trends in ODL from African perspective. It examines some of the definitions that have been put forward by experts in the field, as well as some features that characterized ODL. The paper also reflects on some practices in Africa’s ODL programmes. Furthermore, current trends in the practice of ODL in African countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Bostwana and Nigeria are critically discussed. Some of the policy recommendations highlighted in the paper include the need to invest more in ODL through meaningful budgetary allocations and cost sharing at higher levels of education, creation of partnerships and networking among ODL institutional providers within the continent, private telecommunication sector, and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

Globalization and Collective Bargaining in Nigeria

Globalization has become a worldwide phenomenon affecting all aspects of human endeavour. It has also affected workers’ rights worldwide but the Nigerian situation is among the worst cases. To what extent has globalization aided or hindered collective bargaining in Nigeria and in what ways has Labor managed the situation? These questions serve as motivation for this paper and are addressed through content analysis of relevant documents. In Nigerian, collective bargaining institutions have been constructed and reconstructed in different contexts driven by globalization. Government at all levels in Nigerian subscribed to various provisions of the International Labor Organization but failed to implement them as prescribed. The state and its allies including multinational and transnational companies have manipulated statutory mechanisms that could have guaranteed effective collective bargaining.  Inherent in this situation are various detriments on Labor and aggravated incidence of industrial actions in Nigeria. Therefore this paper argued that though globalization is not completely harmful, however, its operations in Nigeria are such that the setbacks it creates far outweigh its positive influence. In this light, movement for the entrenchment of effective collective bargaining should be intensified and pursued till lasting industrial peace is achieved in the Nigerian industrial relations climate. Keywords: Labor, Globalization, Collective Bargaining, Industrial Actions, Nigeri

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL OF TREAP AND HEAP SORT ALGORITHMS

The task of storing items to allow for fast access to an item given its key is an ubiquitous problem in many organizations. Treap as a method uses key and priority for searching in databases. When the keys are drawn from a large totally ordered set, the choice of storing the items is usually some sort of search tree. The simplest form of such tree is a binary search tree. In this tree, a set X of n items is stored at the nodes of a rooted binary tree in which some item y ϵ X is chosen to be stored at the root of the tree. Heap as data structure is an array object that can be viewed as a nearly complete binary tree in which each node of the tree corresponds to an element of the array that stores the value in the node. Both algorithms were subjected to sorting under the same experimental environment and conditions. This was implemented by means of threads which call each of the two methods simultaneously. The server keeps records of individual search time which was the basis of the comparison. It was discovered that treap was faster than heap sort in sorting and searching for elements using systems with homogenous properties.   &nbsp

Cigarette Smoking and Alcohol Consumption among Commercial Drivers in Lagos, Nigeria

This cross-sectional survey research provided a quantitative description of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption among commercial drivers in Lagos, Nigeria. A multi-stage purposive sampling of two hundred (200) commercial drivers from Mile 2 to Badagry was used for this study. Three hypotheses were formulated for this study. Cigarette Smoking and Alcohol Consumption Questionnaire (CSACOQ) adopted from Genacis lite- H2O Questionnaire was used to gather information from the respondents. Both descriptive and inferential statistics of Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression were used to analyse the data gathered for this study. The result showed that 63.7% were heavy users, 15.6% were moderate users, and 17.7% were occasional or mild users. The researchers discovered that 60% to 70% of the commercial drivers engaged in drinking and driving. In comparison, about 40% of the commercial drivers used other psychoactive drugs such as tobacco (30.4%), cannabis (4.3%), caffeine (31.9%), sedatives (10.1%), and solvents (8.7%). The researchers believe that there is an urgent need to formulate policies in line with the ten proposed targets of WHO, (2008) resolution on strategies to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and cigarette smoking in Nigeria.This cross-sectional survey research provided a quantitative description of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption among commercial drivers in Lagos, Nigeria. A multi-stage purposive sampling of two hundred (200) commercial drivers from Mile 2 to Badagry was used for this study. Three hypotheses were formulated for this study. Cigarette Smoking and Alcohol Consumption Questionnaire (CSACOQ) adopted from Genacis lite- H2O Questionnaire was used to gather information from the respondents. Both descriptive and inferential statistics of Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression were used to analyse the data gathered for this study. The result showed that 63.7% were heavy users, 15.6% were moderate users, and 17.7% were occasional or mild users. The researchers discovered that 60% to 70% of the commercial drivers engaged in drinking and driving. In comparison, about 40% of the commercial drivers used other psychoactive drugs such as tobacco (30.4%), cannabis (4.3%), caffeine (31.9%), sedatives (10.1%), and solvents (8.7%). The researchers believe that there is an urgent need to formulate policies in line with the ten proposed targets of WHO, (2008) resolution on strategies to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and cigarette smoking in Nigeria

PARAMETER VARIATION FOR LINEAR EQUATION SOLVER USING GENETIC ALGORITHM

Genetic Algorithm has been successfully applied for solving systems of Linear Equations; however the effects of varying the various Genetic Algorithms parameters on the GA systems of Linear Equations solver have not been investigated. Varying the GA parameters produces new and exciting information on the behaviour of the GA Linear Equation solver. In this paper,  a general introduction on the Genetic Algorithm, its application on finding solutions to the Systems of Linear equation as well as the effects of varying the Population size and Number of Generation is presented. The genetic algorithm simultaneous linear equation solver program was run several times using different sets of simultaneous linear equation while varying the population sizes as well as the number of generations in order to observe their effects on the solution generation. It was observed that small population size does not produce perfect solutions as fast as when large population size is used and small or large number of generations did not really have much impact on the attainment of perfect solution as much as population size.

AN ONTOLOGY-BASED KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION USING ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS FOR ENHANCING SELECTION OF PRODUCT PREFERENCES

Product alternatives, which emerges from large number of websites during searching, accounts for some hesitation experienced by customers in selecting satisfying product. As a result, making useful decision with many trade-off considerations becomes a major cause of such problem. Several approaches have been employed for product selection such as, fuzzy logic, Neuro-fuzzy, and weighted least square. However, these could not solve the problem of inconsistency and irrelevant judgement that occur in decision making. In this study, Ontology-based Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used for enhancing selection of product preferences. The model involved three fundamental components: product gathering, selection and decision making. Ontology Web Language (OWL) was utilized to define ontology in expressing product information gathering in a standard and structured manner for the purpose of interoperability while AHP was employed in making optimal choices. The procedure accepts customers’ perspectives as inputs which are classified into criteria and sub-criteria. Owl was created to foster customers’ interaction and priority estimation tool for AHP in order to generate the consistency ratio of individual judgements. The model was benchmarked with Geometric Mean (GM), Eigenvector (EV), Normalized Column Sum (NCS) Weighted Least Square (WLS) and Fuzzy Preference Programming (FPP). First and second order total deviations and violation rate were the performance parameters evaluation with AHP. The results showed that the minimum and maximum units of products are 2,452and 3,574, respectively. These implied that the proposed model was consistent, relevant and reflected a non-violation of judgment in selection of product preferences. &nbsp