Timely and reliable packets delivery over Internet of Vehicles (IoVs) for road accidents prevention: a cross-layer approach

With the envisioned era of Internet of Things (IoTs), all aspects of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) will be connected to improve transport safety, relieve traffic congestion, reduce air pollution, enhance the comfort of transportation and significantly reduce road accidents. In IoVs, regular exchange of current position, direction, velocity, etc., enables mobile vehicles to predict an upcoming accident and alert the human drivers in time or proactively take precautionary actions to avoid the accident. The actualization of this concept requires the use of channel access protocols that can guarantee reliable and timely broadcast of safety messages. This paper investigates the application of network coding concept to increase content of every transmission and achieve improved broadcast reliability with less number of retransmission. In particular, we proposed Code Aided Retransmission-based Error Recovery (CARER) scheme, introduced an RTB/CTB handshake to overcome hidden node problem and reduce packets collision rate. In order to avoid broadcast storm problem associated with the use of RTB/CTB packet in a broadcast transmission, we developed a rebroadcasting metric used to successfully select a vehicle to rebroadcast the encoded message. The performance of CARER protocol is clearly shown with detailed theoretical analysis and further validated with simulation experiments

Context-based multimedia semantics modelling and representation

The evolution of the World Wide Web, increase in processing power, and more network bandwidth have contributed to the proliferation of digital multimedia data. Since multimedia data has become a critical resource in many organisations, there is an increasing need to gain efficient access to data, in order to share, extract knowledge, and ultimately use the knowledge to inform business decisions. Existing methods for multimedia semantic understanding are limited to the computable low-level features; which raises the question of how to identify and represent the high-level semantic knowledge in multimedia resources.In order to bridge the semantic gap between multimedia low-level features and high-level human perception, this thesis seeks to identify the possible contextual dimensions in multimedia resources to help in semantic understanding and organisation. This thesis investigates the use of contextual knowledge to organise and represent the semantics of multimedia data aimed at efficient and effective multimedia content-based semantic retrieval.A mixed methods research approach incorporating both Design Science Research and Formal Methods for investigation and evaluation was adopted. A critical review of current approaches for multimedia semantic retrieval was undertaken and various shortcomings identified. The objectives for a solution were defined which led to the design, development, and formalisation of a context-based model for multimedia semantic understanding and organisation. The model relies on the identification of different contextual dimensions in multimedia resources to aggregate meaning and facilitate semantic representation, knowledge sharing and reuse. A prototype system for multimedia annotation, CONMAN was built to demonstrate aspects of the model and validate the research hypothesis, H₁.Towards providing richer and clearer semantic representation of multimedia content, the original contributions of this thesis to Information Science include: (a) a novel framework and formalised model for organising and representing the semantics of heterogeneous visual data; and (b) a novel S-Space model that is aimed at visual information semantic organisation and discovery, and forms the foundations for automatic video semantic understanding

Granger Causality between Private Domestic Savings and Economic Growth in Nigeria: Toda-Yamamoto Approach

The study investigated the causality between private domestic savings and economic growth in Nigeria for the period 1981-2014. Specifically, the study examines whether private domestic savings have positive impact on economic growth; and as well investigate if there is existence (or not) of significant causality between private domestic savings and economic growth in Nigeria. Vector Auto Regressive (VAR) model and Toda-Yamamoto approach to Granger causality test were utilized for the analysis. The variables such as total private savings (TPS), government expenditure (GEX), financial deepening (FD) and real GDP were used in the study. Stationarity test was conducted by applying the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) stationarity test and the results revealed that all the variables were non-stationary at level, and however, became stationary after first and second differencing. The VAR model results showed that total private savings (TPS) has positive impact on real GDP. Furthermore, the results of the Toda-Yamamoto to Granger causality test revealed that significant causality exist between TPS and RGDP, with causality running from RGDP to TPS. Therefore, the study recommends that government should adopt those macroeconomic policies that tend to promote economic growth in order to achieve increased savings, investment and higher employment. Similarly, the study recommends that government should expand its expenditure level on real sector of the economy and as well encourage financial sector to enable them operate effectively and efficiently in order to finance investment and other macroeconomic policies that have the capacity to facilitates economic growth and savings rate in the economy. Keywords: Nigeria, Domestic Savings, Economic Growth, Toda-Yamamot

Assessment of barriers to the adoption of sustainable building materials (SBM) in the construction industry of a developing country

Purpose Sustainable/Green building materials (SBMs/GBMs) offer a wide range of benefits which cut across the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. The incorporation of these materials in construction projects in most developing countries is still low owing to some factors. This study assessed the major barriers to the incorporation of SBMs in the delivery of construction projects in developing countries, with Nigeria as a case in point. Design/methodology/approach The well-structured quantitative questionnaire was used to gather data from the key players in the construction industry, using the snowball sampling method and electronic means of questionnaire administration. Frequencies, percentile, relative importance index, Kruskal–Wallis H test, Kendall's coefficient of concordance and exploratory factor analysis were used to analyse the gathered data. Findings The study revealed that the major constructs of barriers to SBM adoption in construction projects are: (1) resistance and information barriers (Eigenvalues = 5.237; % of V = 23.806), (2) regulation and funding of R&D (Eigenvalues = 2.741; % of V = 12.457), (3) cost and market barriers (Eigenvalues = 2.223; % of V = 10.105), (4) government incentive and suppliers' availability (Eigenvalues = 1.728; % of V = 7.852) and (5) GB experts and labour barriers (Eigenvalues = 1.307; % of V = 5.942). Originality/value This study assessed the view of construction experts in the five states of the south-eastern geo-political zone of Nigeria, particularly as regards the barriers to the incorporation of sustainable building materials in construction projects in the region

Reviewing mHealth in developing countries: a stakeholder perspective

Infrastructural deficiencies, limited access to medicare, and shortage of health care workers are just a few of the barriers to health care in developing countries. As a consequence, the burden of disease and its impact on the livelihoods and the economic productivity of people are staggering. mHealth has been extolled as one possible solution to overcoming these challenges, yet discussion of mHealth systems is often limited to specific tasks and user groups. To address this, we adopt a stakeholder perspective and analyze existing research on the mHealth process in developing countries. Specifically, we focus on three key stakeholder groups, i.e. healthcare workers, patients, and system developers. We perform an in-depth analysis of 60 peer-reviewed studies to determine the extent to which different mHealth stakeholder interactions are researched, and to identify high-level themes emerging within these interactions. This analysis illustrates two key gaps in existing mHealth research. First, while interactions involving healthcare workers and/or patients have received significant attention, relatively little research has looked at the role of patient-to-patient interactions. Second, the interactions between system developers and the other stakeholder groups are strikingly under-represented. We conclude by calling for more mHealth research that explicitly addresses these stakeholder interactions

Potential Benefits of Implementing Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the Nigerian Construction Industry

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an innovative technology that has transformed the way construction projects are delivered. It has helped to overcome the problems of cost and time overruns, poor quality, safety issues, dissatisfaction, and loss of profit, among others; associated with the traditional method of project delivery. Despite the enormous benefits of BIM, its adoption and implementation among construction companies in the construction industry of developing nations remained low. In order to drive and influence the wider implementation of BIM, this study assessed the perceived potential benefits of BIM in the Nigerian construction industry. The study adopted a survey approach in which well-structured questionnaires were used to gather data from construction professionals in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, using snowball sampling techniques. With 132 responses, the data gathered were analysed using frequencies, percentile, relative importance index (RII) and Kruskal-Wallis test. The study concluded the level of awareness of BIM is high while its adoption is low. Also, the potential benefits of BIM adoption that could encourage wider implementation in construction are; improve project quality, minimize errors and mistakes, better clash detection, reduced construction time, improve multi-party communication and collaboration, improve project documentation, improves efficiency and productivity, project cost reduction, and minimizes disputes and conflicts. The Government of Nigeria and other African countries should come up with a policy that would make BIM application in construction mandatory

A holistic view of the social and technical factors that Influence the assimilation of an mHealth tool in developing countries

The integration of smartphones and mobile devices into healthcare systems has been proposed to address some of the physical barriers to healthcare delivery in rural areas of developing countries. This has prompted a number of intervention initiatives to develop novel mHealth tools for specific regions. However, despite all the research and the investment, there has been slow practical progress. This thesis attributes this slow progress to compartmentalised thinking and limited holistic exploration. In order to understand these problems, this thesis undertook a number of studies, i.e., a review-focused, a past-focused, a future-focused, and policy-focused studies to understand how an mHealth tool could be assimilated in rural areas of developing countries. These studies took place in the context of an mHealth app being explored for introduction to assist with the diagnosis and treatment of sick children under the age of five in Enugu State, Nigeria. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to create a more socially and technologically holistic understanding of the factors that influence the introduction of mHealth tools into rural areas of developing countries. First, findings from the review-focused study illustrate two key trends in existing research. Most strikingly, little research has looked at the role of patient-to-patient interactions. Furthermore, the interactions between system developers and the other stakeholder groups are notably under-represented. Second, findings from the past-focused study indicate that, (i) at the social-level, there is a perceived limitation of services, human resources and a sense of exclusion from the urban health system; (ii) at ‘material-level, observations were made of the significant infrastructural and technological limitations that discourage rural healthcare workers (RHCWs) and parents/guardians (PGs) from spending prolonged periods at the rural health centres; (iii) at the ‘practice-level’, there is the formal diagnosis treatment method practiced by the RHCWs in the midst of the PGs diagnosis and treatment practices and African traditional healing practices, and (iv) at ‘imbrication-level’, the entanglement of phones with internet access have exposed PGs to a range of health information outside the control or guidance of health professionals. Third, from the future-focused study, findings show a set of factors which are bound as an emerging explanatory model which influence primary appraisal of an mHealth tool in a new context. These factors describe a set of individual and social influences that governments, funding bodies and non-governmental organisations should consider before the introduction of an mHealth tool. Fourth, from the policy-focused study, a framework is proposed that differentiates between interventions targeting traits and states, the latter being situation-specific, and the former which seeks to improve individual’s abilities, job knowledge, and skills as they relate to an mHealth tool. Furthermore, the framework differentiates between individual and social interventions, the former being resilient to personnel change, and the latter seeking to improve crucial situations that would otherwise cause social systems to break down around an mHealth tool. These findings have implications for theory, practice, and future research. These implications are discussed in the final chapter of this thesis

The Status Quo of IS Conference Publications on Theorising eHealth in Developing Countries

The purpose of this systematic review is to consolidate existing evidence on electronic health (eHealth) initiatives examined in developing countries to better inform future practice and research. More specifically, this paper examines the status quo of theorising eHealth in developing countries across a range of top Information Systems (IS) conference publications over a fifteen year period (2000–2015). While some work has been done on examining the application of theory within the eHealth domain, the associated context in which this work is performed is often over looked. Examining the papers from a theoretical and contextual perspective reveal that IS researchers’ primary attention is generalisable theory (in the form of explanation) with some consideration given to the interaction with the healthcare context. IS researchers should leverage the lessons learned from other IS sub domains and move beyond generalisable theories to further enrich the understanding of eHealth in developing countries

Health and safety (hs) risks normalization in the construction industry: the SMEs perspective

The construction industry is hazardous and experiences poor health and safety performance records; as a result of the abuse and negligence of health and safety policies. Emphasis is now on health and safety management as health and safety risks are now normalised in the construction industry by the actions of construction SMEs. The study assessed the factors promoting health and safety risks normalisation in the construction industry of Nigeria. The study sampled construction professionals and tradespeople, using a well-structured questionnaire and snowball sampling techniques. With a response rate of 72.61% and a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.916; percentage, frequency, Mann-Whitney U Test and factor analysis were used to analyse the gathered data. It was found that there is a low level of occupational health and safety policies application and performance in the construction industry. The poor health and safety performance is prompted by HS risks normalisation promoted by factors such as misconception of and unwillingness to invest in HS, informal and unstructured HS policies, medical issues and excessive workload, Planning and client unwillingness, management commitment issues, and unorganised HS culture. Also, there was no statistically significant difference in the perceptions of the professionals and the tradespeople regarding 89.29% of the assessed variables. Commitment from the management and leadership of the SMEs and making of health and safety culture an integral part of the functioning of the organisations was thus recommended

The Relationship between Unemployment and Economic Growth in Nigeria: Granger Causality Approach

The study examined the relationship between unemployment and economic growth in Nigeria; and specifically focused on the impact of unemployment on economic growth for the period 1980-2013. Cointegration test, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) technique and Granger causality test were employed in the analysis. The variables utilized in the investigation include real gross domestic product (RGDP), unemployment rate (UNEMP) and private consumption expenditure (PCE). Stationarity test was conducted and the results indicated that all the variables except UNEMP were stationary at level; however, UNEMP became stationary after first differencing. The cointegration test result revealed that long run relationship exists among the variables under study. More so, VECM result showed that unemployment has negative and significant impact on RGDP. Finally, the Granger causality results indicated unidirectional relationship between UNEMP and RGDP, with causality running from RGDP to UNEMP. Based on the findings above, the study therefore, recommends that government should as a matter of urgency create more employment opportunities to absorb the teeming population of the unemployed labour force in the country through modernization of the agricultural sector, bring in modern equipment in the facilities of agriculture to make the sector more attractive to all citizens despite one’s qualifications and profession, as that alone would go a long way in reducing unemployment level in the country. Keywords: Nigeria, Economic growth, Unemployment, Cointegration, Granger causality