973 research outputs found
Information technology adoption inhibitor-influencer model for SMEs in the construction industry
Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in the Nigerian construction industry has been struggling with the issues of improper materials management practices. In an attempt to address these issues, Information Technology (IT) was initiated primarily to overcome the shortcomings of the conventional materials management practices. Although, IT was aimed to greatly enhance performance and reduce non-value adding activities, IT structures in reality lack clear adoption realisation process to drive in within such factors to deliver the adoption of IT in SMEs. The current trend of materials management practices in small and medium construction companies has been the subject of criticism. IT adoption has not had the expected resounding success of a total adoption and utilisation. This research has empirically identified factors inhibiting and influencing IT adoption in Nigerian SMEs. The research focuses on the factors with respect to their inhibiting and influencing impact to IT adoption within the context of SMEs in Nigeria with the aim to develop IT adoption inhibitor-influencer model for SMEās IT adoption enhancement. The methodology adopted in this research was mixed methods approach. Interview data was obtained from seven (7) SMEs, based on a systematic sampling of the SMEs in the north-eastern region of Nigeria and the data were analysed using content analysis. Whilst questionnaire survey data was obtained from 187 respondents and the data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the relationships between the exogenous constructs (inhibitor and influencer) to endogenous construct in order to validate and confirm the developed influencing factors for IT adoption model. The findings reveal that cost, government, and employees factors have significant influence on SMEās IT adoption, whilst, technology and practices factors were found to have a partial inhibiting effect on SMEās IT adoption. This research provides a multi-dimensional perspective for the enhancement of SMEās IT adoption and can contribute to high project performance. It is also provide mechanism for realising effective materials management practices for delivering successful projects in the SME construction companies. In conclusion, it is timely to reverse the trend of low IT adoption within SMEs in the construction industry in Nigeria
DeltaTree: A Practical Locality-aware Concurrent Search Tree
As other fundamental programming abstractions in energy-efficient computing,
search trees are expected to support both high parallelism and data locality.
However, existing highly-concurrent search trees such as red-black trees and
AVL trees do not consider data locality while existing locality-aware search
trees such as those based on the van Emde Boas layout (vEB-based trees), poorly
support concurrent (update) operations.
This paper presents DeltaTree, a practical locality-aware concurrent search
tree that combines both locality-optimisation techniques from vEB-based trees
and concurrency-optimisation techniques from non-blocking highly-concurrent
search trees. DeltaTree is a -ary leaf-oriented tree of DeltaNodes in which
each DeltaNode is a size-fixed tree-container with the van Emde Boas layout.
The expected memory transfer costs of DeltaTree's Search, Insert, and Delete
operations are , where are the tree size and the unknown
memory block size in the ideal cache model, respectively. DeltaTree's Search
operation is wait-free, providing prioritised lanes for Search operations, the
dominant operation in search trees. Its Insert and {\em Delete} operations are
non-blocking to other Search, Insert, and Delete operations, but they may be
occasionally blocked by maintenance operations that are sometimes triggered to
keep DeltaTree in good shape. Our experimental evaluation using the latest
implementation of AVL, red-black, and speculation friendly trees from the
Synchrobench benchmark has shown that DeltaTree is up to 5 times faster than
all of the three concurrent search trees for searching operations and up to 1.6
times faster for update operations when the update contention is not too high
INFORMETRICS ANALYSIS OF AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA INSTITUTIONAL DIGITAL REPOSITORY (IDR)
Employing Informetric analysis, the study investigated the features, types of documents, subjects spread and challenges affecting the growth and development of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Institutional Digital Repositories (ABU-IDR). The findings of the study indicated that the IDR has diverse features, deploying DSpace, Dublin core metadata elements and Open Archive Initiative ā Metadata Harvesting Protocol (OAI-PMH) to make the repository robust and interoperable. As reported by earlier studies, ABU-IDR is also found to be dominated by theses and dissertations with 9,857(95.82) documents. Finding on subjects spread of theses and dissertations illustrated that Faculties of Sciences and Education have the largest subject coverage with 1979 (20.1%) and 1702 (17.3%) respectively. With diverse features and deploying DSpace, OAI-PMH and its interoperability, the study concluded that ABU-IDR has gained considerable traction in recent years. However, the IDR can be made more effective and efficient by creating institutional repository policy that will take care of copyright, deposition right, diversification of contents and advocacy which are the major challenges hampering the growth and development of the IDR
Information needs and access of Members of Vigilante in Adamawa State, North -East Nigeria
ABSTRACT The study investigated the Information needs and access of Members of Vigilante in Adamawa state, North-eastern Nigeria, one of the three states bedeviled by the Boko Haram insurgency. Quantitative research methodology and Cross-sectional survey design was applied for the study. The population of the study comprised of One Thousand Four Hundred Members (1400) drawn from Nineteen (19) local governments areas in the state. Krejcie and Morgan Table (1970) was used to draw (302) members as sample of the population, while Walpoleās (1982) formula for proportions was used in arriving at a sample for each stratum (i.e. each local government area). In collecting data, a total of Three Hundred and Two (302) copies of questionnaires were administered, and Two Hundred and Forty 240 copies (79.47%) were returned and found useful. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The outcome of the study revealed that the information needs of members were daily mainly work related and from informal sources, as there were no public libraries/information centers in 17 local governmentsā areas of the state. The outcome of the research also revealed barriers to information access to include general lack of formal information infrastructure such as libraries/information centers, poor and unreliable informal information sources, as well as lack of training on information literacy skills for members of Vigilante. It is recommended that there is a need for those involved in vigilante information delivery to continuously examine and identify evolving information needs of members of vigilante in order to meet such needs. Government should resuscitate the dying public libraries in all the local government areas of Adamawa state to provide information services. Libraries should organize training on information literacy and other information use skills for members of vigilante, because if this is done, it will enhance and improve information access across communities in Adamawa state. Finally, information resources be repackaged in order to take care of challenges of proximity to sources of information, language barrier and other challenges faced by members of vigilante
Factors Influencing Studentsā Career Choice in Accounting: The Case of Yobe State University
The study examined the factors that influence career choice in accounting among Nigerian university students. Authors in the field of education and behavioural science tend to attribute different factors that influence career choice among individuals. Parental influence, self ā desire, better pay, prestige and future prospects were found to be the major influencial factors in career choices among Nigerian University students. The study used survey method with a population of 88 students from the Department of Accountancy, Yobe State Univesity. The finding of this study indicates that self ā desire and future pospects have significant influene on the choice of accounting among the study group. The study further recommends that univerisity program be tailored towards the desire of the students and the society and students are acquinted with the need of the profession. Keywords: Accounting, Career Choice, University Students, Accounting education
Zinc Oxide-Catalysed Photo-Oxidative Degradation of Chlorophenols
Chlorophenols are priority pollutants that must be eradicated from the environment
owing to the severity of their toxicity and resistance to traditional treatment.
Photocatalytic oxidation is an advanced oxidation method which has proven
reliability to eliminate persistent pollutants from air and water. The activity of zinc
oxide for pollutant removal by photocatalytic oxidation has been well established. In
this work the photocatalytic transformation of 4-chlorophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol
and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol in irradiated ZnO suspensions at 299 K was studied. The
effect of operating parameters such as catalyst and concentration doses on the
decomposition rate of these para-chlorinated compounds has been investigated and
optimised. It was discovered that the optimum feed concentration for the phenolic
compounds is 50 mg L-1. The optimum amount of ZnO was determined for the
degradation of 4-chlorophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol which
decreased as with increasing of chlorine substituent. For 4-chlorophenol degradation the first clearer description of the effect of doses using response surface was
reported.
Kinetic profiles on the decomposition of chlorophenols over ZnO were consistent
with pseudo-zeroeth order rate scheme. For 2,4-dichlorophenol and 2,4,6-
trichlorophenol the decomposition was slow at the short irradiation time. It was
found that the degradability of chlorophenols increased as the number of ringchlorine
increased. The effect of pH on the destruction rate was found to be
influenced by chlorophenol adsorption and dissociation equilibrium.
The effect of different anions on the rate of chlorophenol degradation was evaluated
by utilising sodium salts as additives. Except for 4-chlorophenol it was found that,
inorganic anion additives such as SO4
2-, S2O8
2- and Cl- demonstrated inhibition to the
decomposition rate of chlorophenol. HPO4
2- was found to show strongest inhibition
and could even hamper the degradation of 4-chlorophenol.
The progression of intermediates during the mineralisation of chlorophenols was
chromatographed on high performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC). The structure
elucidation of pathway products en route to mineralisation of chlorophenols was
performed by the combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and
HPLC methods. The study disclosed some hitherto unreported intermediates of
photocatalytic decomposition of 4-chlorophenol and 2,4-dichlorophenol. Catechol
was detected as new intermediate of 4-chlorophenol degradation. Similarly, 4-
hydroxybenzaldehyde, benzoquinone and 4-chlorophenol are for the first time
reported for 2,4-dichlorophenol degradation. The work also revealed the
intermediates of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol which have not been in literature. It is
highlighted herein the mechanism of formation of all pathway intermediates
Frameworks for Teachersā Knowledge of Mathematics
This paper, describes seven teacher knowledge frameworks and relates these frameworks to the teaching and assessment of elementary teachersā mathematics knowledge. The frameworks classify teachersā knowledge and provide a vocabulary and common language through which knowledge can be discussed and assessed. These frameworks are categorized into two classes: content knowledge and content knowledge for teaching. Content knowledge frameworks include Instrumental and Relational Understandings, Procedural and Conceptual Understandings, Depth of Knowledge; andĀ Cognitive Complexities. Content knowledge for teaching frameworks includes. Type of Teachers Knowledge andĀ Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching. The Diagnostic Teacher Assessment of Mathematics and Science (DTAMS), a tool that assesses both mathematics teachersā depth of conceptual knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, is used to concretely connect the frameworks. The paper concludes with examples of quantitative assessments of teachersā mathematics knowledge based on these teachersā knowledge frameworks
The Need for an Effective Collaboration Across Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) Fields for a Meaningful Technological Development in Nigeria
Collaboration plays a major role in interdisciplinary activities among Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) disciplines or fields. It also affects the relationships among cluster members on the management team. Although effective collaboration does not guarantee success among STEM disciplines, its absence usually assures problems. More specifically, collaboration has the obvious roles of identifying talents coming together for a common purpose of combining knowledge and sharing responsibility, creativity, and experience of others. Facilitating collaboration across Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields in program development is critical to providing a strong educational foundation to all learners in STEM education. This synergistic effort among educators and other professionals across the STEM fields will enable effective knowledge sharing in program development. This paper addresses leadership and knowledge sharing among collaborators in STEM program development through facilitating collaboration across STEM fiel
The role compulsory licensing in combatting counterfeit drugs in Nigeria
The negative implication of the existence of counterfeit to the public, government and pharmaceutical companies is one of the issue examined in this study. This leads to a question of how the concept of compulsory licensing as provided for under the relevant laws can be used to address the proliferation of counterfeit drugs in Nigeria The objective of this study is to identify how the relevant laws on compulsory licensing can be used to address the proliferation of counterfeit drugs in Nigeria. Thus, this study employed doctrinal legal method. The content analysis is used in analyzing the data collected in this research. The study found out concept of compulsory licensing has the effect of enhancing access to affordable drugs through the authorization given to other producers to manufacture the said patented drugs and this will in turn spur competition.
The study also recommends the government to issue compulsory licensing over patented drugs in order to assist the public to get of affordable and quality drugs in Nigeri
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Virus-host interactions in the cassava brown streak disease pathosystem
The research seeks to understand the virus-host plant interactions for cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) caused by two viruses, Cassava brown streak virus (CBSV) and Ugandan Cassava brown streak virus (UCBSV) of the genus Ipomovirus, family Potyviridae. The diversity of six CBSD isolates from the endemic (Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania) and the recently developed epidemic areas (Uganda) of the disease in eastern Africa was studied. Five cassava varieties differing in virus resistance levels; Albert, Columbian, Ebwanateraka, TMS60444 (all susceptible) and Kiroba (tolerant) were graft-inoculated with the UCBSV and CBSV isolates. Based on a number of parameters, the isolates can be grouped into two main categories; severe and milder forms.
Transmission of viruses using non-vector modes confirmed that CBSV was sap transmissible from cassava to cassava. Graft-inoculation of infected scions onto CBSD-free cassava plants was the most efficient mode of transmission which resulted in 80 and 100% rate for UCBSV and CBSV respectively. The two virus isolates were not transmitted through contaminated tools and hands. The effect of host-tolerance on virus was investigated in a long-term experiment where three cassava varieties Albert, Kiroba and Kaleso (field-resistant to CBSD) were graft-inoculated with UCBSV and CBSV. The three cassava varieties showed differences in virus movement, symptom development, severity and relative virus titres.
The mechanisms of resistance to CBSD were investigated by making cuttings, from various parts of the plants, and a greater number of disease-free plants were generated from cuttings made from Kaleso than Kiroba and Albert. The fecundity of B. tabaci and its ability to transmit the virus were determined and results indicated no significant differences in the ability of the three cassava varieties to support whitefly development.
Finally, thermal and chemical treatments of tissue cultured plants were conducted and the combinations of both treatments produced the greatest number of disease-free plants in all three varieties; Kaleso (50%), Kiroba (44%) and Albert (35%). The information generated in this thesis has greatly improved our understanding of the interactions between the three biotic factors; the host, virus and vector in the CBSD-pathosystem, which would be highly useful in designing effective disease management strategies
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