Assessment of the effects of building collapse risks on the stakeholders in the Nigerian built environment

The study investigates the effects of building collapse risks on the stakeholders in the Nigerian built environment. Survey research design was adopted in carrying out the research and five cities in Nigeria were selected (Abuja, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Owerri and Lagos). The target population for the study is the stakeholders in the Nigerian built environment: key professionals in the construction industry, clients/developers and users of the finished product. A sample size of 1999 was chosen using Taro Yamane method. The data generated from 1860 respondents representing 93 % of the distributed questionnaires were presented using frequency tables, pie –charts and bar charts, while analysis was done using percentages and weighted mean. The findings of the study show that building collapse risks have multifarious factors which were categorized as Economic/Financial risks, Socio-political risks, Human related risks, Physical risks, Environmental risks and Law/legal risks. The negative effects of these risks are: loss of property, loss of reputation and integrity of the contractors, loss of lives, legal tussle among the stakeholders, etc.. It was also found out that economic/financial risks have the predominant effect on the stakeholders, followed by Human related risks, Socio-Political risks, Physical risks, Environmental risks and lastly Law/Legal risks. It was recommended that all hands should be on deck to curb the havoc caused by building collapse as the effect is usually felt by all and sundry. There should be adequate funding and monitoring of the activities of all Emergency Management Agencies.Keywords: Building collapse, Building collapse risks, Stakeholders, Built Environment, Millennium Developments Goals (MDGs), Emergency Management Agenc

Predicting the Growth of e-Commerce using Trendline Analysis: A Case Study of Ogun State, Nigeria

There is a growing interest from e-commerce planners and other planning agencies in the Information Technology world to measure and forecast the growth of e-commerce in developing countries like Nigeria. The difficulties lie in finding the best forecasting model that can incorporate both the internal and external barriers that influence the full adoption and diffusion of e-commerce. This study attempts to identify the relevant e-commerce tools and its spread in Ogun East Senatorial District as well as formulating a mathematical model for e-commerce adoption and diffusion. A well-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 126 respondents and analyzed using Trendline, a built-in analysis tool in Microsoft® Office Excel version 2013. The study identified PCs/laptops, ATM cards, e-mail services, mobile money transfer, e-commerce Websites, and point-of-sales (POS) terminals as e-commerce tools used by the respondents. The results of the study show that majority of the e-commerce users/adopters were single female students between the ages of 21 and 30 years, with university education owing to a proportion of 63% of the respondents while the earliest adopted e-commerce tools in descending order were tablets/smartphones, PCs/laptops, ATM cards, and email services. The results further show that the most popularly-used tools were e-commerce websites (98% responses), email services (94% responses), mobile money transfer (94% responses), POS terminals (94% responses), tablets/smartphones (93% responses), PCs/laptops (87% responses) and ATM cards (80% responses). Based on the findings of this study, it is therefore recommended that government should promote the use and development of e-commerce, notably by reducing the costs of access to technology, through the liberation of trade in software and hardware.

The Effect of Human Resource Management Policies and Practices on Organizational Performance in Selected Tertiary Health Institutions Cross River State, Nigeria

This study examined the effect of recruitment and selection, training and development policies and practices on tertiary health institutions performance. The study became necessary due to the perceived poor implementation of human resource management policies and practices in tertiary health institutions. Specifically, the study was designed to examine the effect of recruitment and selection practices, training and development on University of Calabar Teaching Hospital’s performance. Literature review was based on the selected variables for the study. Two research questions and hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Taro-Yamane’s (1967) estimation equation was adopted to determine sample size for the study. Questionnaire survey was used as instrument for data collection while descriptive statistics was used to determine their frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. Also, simple linear regression model was adopted for data analysis and test of hypotheses at 0.05 significant levels using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20. The result of the analysis revealed statistical significant relationship between the three studied variables and tertiary health institutions performance. Based on the above findings, it was concluded that, the quality of employee hired, type of training and motivation given determine performance in tertiary health institutions. Sequel to the above, it was recommended among others that regular and relevant training programmes such as information and communication technology, overseas job related seminars, conferences on current health management issues etc. for both medical and non medical personnel be carried out in order to put employees’ at par with  their counterparts  on  global best practices, provide adequate working facilities, ensure regular payments of salaries, arrears, overtime, good hazard / call duty allowance and regular staff promotion that would make workers’ carry out their duties effectively towards efficiency and growth of tertiary health institutions in Cross River State Keywords: Human Resource, Management, Policies, Practices and Organisational Performance

Gastro-protective effect of Crossopteryx febrifuga in Wistar rats

Preparations of Crossopteryx febrifuga (Afzel.) Benth. (Rubiaceae) are  widely used in Northern Nigeria in the therapeutic management of trypanosomiasis, malaria and painful inflammatory disorders. Previous studies have shown that the methanolic stem bark extract of Crossopteryx febrifuga possesses significant analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties possibly mediated via Non-selective inhibition of cyclo-oxygenase pathways. In the present study, the methanolic stem bark extract of Crossopteryx febrifuga was evaluated against ethanol- and piroxicam-induced ulceration in rats. Histopathological studies of the rat stomach tissues were also carried out in order to determine its safety profile on the gastrointestinal tract (git). The extract (25, 50 and100 mg extract/kg body weight) significantly (

Achieving Excellence in the Operations of Entrepreneurship Development Centres in Nigeria Higher Institutions

There have been several policy interventions in Nigeria that were aimed at stimulating enterprise development. In line with this effort, entrepreneurship syllabus was embedded in the higher institutions curriculum to stimulate entrepreneurship mind-set among Nigeria graduates. And Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDCs) sprang up in various institutions with varying approaches to the challenges posted to them.  With almost a decade experience in entrepreneurship educational development in our higher institutions, a stock-taking of their activities and way to achieve the aims and objectives is urgently needed. It was discovered that these centres, which most institution have established have not reach their potential capacity. So, the paper takes a look the current mode of operation of the some of the centres and their impacts on their graduates. In conclusion, the paper recommend ways and manners the centres can meet the contemporary challenges and their roles in enterprise development, skill acquisition and entrepreneurship education. Key words: Entrepreneurship Development Centres, Entrepreneurship education and Enterprise development

The Information Environment of Teachers of Science Subjects in Public Secondary Schools in Offa Metropolis, Nigeria

Bearing in mind the strategic position of science in the development of society and arising from the need for an investigation into the information environment of Teachers of Science Subjects (TSS) in Offa, the study was carried out to determine their information needs, seeking behavior, sources, perceptions on the state of their school libraries and challenges of accessing information. It adopted survey research method with questionnaire as the tool for data collection, which was administered on all TSS in the affected schools, collected and analysed with descriptive statistics. It was discovered that the information needs of the TSS are mostly on their subject areas and contemporary methods of teaching, developments and inventions in science and technology, medical and health information, information on educational issues and furthers studies as well as on things happening around the world. The online environment - Internet shapes their information seeking behavior and was main avenue through which they access information. Their perception on the poor state of libraries in their schools is an issue of concern, as it acts as a challenge to their access to information. Recommendations were put forward on ways to remedy the situation

A Review of Rainfall Erosivity as a Natural Factor of Gully Erosion

In this 21st century which is climate change-driven with more extreme rainfall events, gully erosion is increasingly becoming a global environmental problem influenced by both natural and anthropogenic factors. This paper is a literature review of rainfall erosivity as one of the natural factors of gully erosion. The central objective of the paper is to show in a global context how rainfall erosivity has influenced gully erosion. The method used is a review of academic/journal articles, textbooks, internet materials, conference papers and publicly available materials on gully erosion and rainfall erosivity as one of its factors. Previous authors whose works were reviewed on rainfall erosivity as a factor of gully erosion have a convergent view that rainfall is the primary cause of water-induced erosion and its power to do so is known as erosivity. They were of the view that a more intense rainfall of short duration can cause gully erosion more than a less intense one for a longer period of time. The authors also have a unity of opinion that areas with high rainfall regime such as the tropics are more prone to soil erosion than areas with low rainfall events. Recommendations to reduce the influence of rainfall as a factor of soil erosion include planting of trees and grasses that reduce the impact of rainfall to detach soil particles, conservation practices such as terracing, strip cropping and contour ploughing, a shift from rain-fed agriculture to dry season farming and grants to the affected people and landholders to manage gully erosion using adaptive measures based on their indigenous knowledge

Enhancing Graduate Employability: Why Higher Education Institutions have problems with teaching generic skills?

One debate among business owners and policymakers centres on whether higher education institutions (HEIs) have failed to transform the younger generation by developing their competencies, skills, values and behaviours to enable them to be fit for the world of work. While previous studies have considered the importance of skills development and its assessment in many contexts, there appears to have been limited scholarly research on employability issues within the higher education system (HES) in Nigeria. In seeking to address this, it is vital to understand how HEIs in Nigeria conceptualize generic skills and why HEIs have problems with teaching generic skills in their programmes. By adopting a qualitative approach, based on interviews with senior academics, industry executives and final-year undergraduates, this study found that many of the HEIs do not facilitate the teaching of high-level generic skills in their programmes. Some of the factors attributed to this include poor learning environment, lack of staff with industry experience, and over-dependence on theoretical content teaching. The findings are significant for reorienting the HE curriculum developers to align with the needs of the industry and society. Regarding implications for policy, we recommend that enterprise education be made mandatory for primary, secondary and tertiary education curriculum in Nigeria. Finally, we advocate more inclusive and interpretive research for greater understanding of the issues, and to offer useful data for policy-making and decision-making on the perspectives of preparing graduates for work

Physical, chemical and mechanical properties of corn sheath as pulp and paper raw material

Most papers are made from virgin wood-based pulp of hardwood sources but recently, softwood have received enormous attention as alternative to hard wood because the hardwood takes a significant number of years to mature enough for use in the pulp and paper industry unlike softwood which are majorly annual plants. The annual crop in focus in this work is the yellow open-pollinated variety of corn which generates tons of waste at harvest. A novel attempt is made to ascertain the viability of corn sheaths as raw material for the pulp and paper industry by carrying out a comprehensive analysis on the pulp and paper made from the pulp. The sheaths were dried, shred and cut into pieces suitable for the digester and the pulps obtained were analysed for physicochemical properties. Hand sheets were also made using the generated pulp and its physico-mechanical properties were analysed. Results obtained were compared with pulp from corn husks from other parts of the country, three Nigerian fibre sources – silk cotton, bagasse and rice straw and other foreign non-wood sources and found to be of competitive properties. Pulp properties of Lignin content, ash content, cellulose, hot and cold water solubility of the fibres were 13.72 ± 1.21%, 1.27 ± 0.23%, 53.26 ± 1.11%, 15.20 ± 2.11 and 6.14 ± 2.43 respectively while the mechanical properties of paper from the pulp were Bursting strength (282.163 KPa m2/g), Tear strength (146.119), Tensile strength (257.6N/m) and Tensile Index (3.9Nm/g). It was found that in all properties, the corn sheath was better than the rice straw fibers but not as good as the silk cotton and bagasse fibers. However, the corn sheath has been identified, as a viable raw material for the pulp and paper industry in Nigeria

A pilot dose-response study of the acute effects of haskap berry extract (Lonicera caerulea L.) on cognition, mood and blood pressure in older adults

Purpose Haskap (Lonicera caerulea L. or blue honeysuckle) is a plant native to the low-lying wet areas and mountains of Siberia and northeastern Asia, but is now cultivated in Canada. The dark blue berries are rich in anthocyanins, particularly cyanidin-3-O-glucoside. Previously, anthocyanin-rich fruits have been observed to benefit cognitive performance during the immediate postprandial period following a single acute dose. However, no study has currently examined the potential for haskap berries to influence cognitive performance. Here, we investigate the acute cognitive benefits of an anthocyanin-rich haskap berry extract. Methods A double-blind, counterbalanced, crossover intervention study compared the acute effects of three separate haskap berry extract doses, containing 100mg, 200mg, and 400mg anthocyanins, with a sugar-matched placebo. Participants were an opportunity sample of 20 older adults, aged 62-81 years. Measures of cognition, mood, and blood pressure were recorded at baseline and 1.5 hours postprandially. Results Compared to placebo, the 400mg dose elicited significantly lower diastolic blood pressure and heart rate. Both 200mg and 400mg doses elicited significantly higher word recall, with the 400mg dose also significantly improving word recognition scores, on an episodic memory task. However, mood, working memory and executive function task results were more equivocal. Conclusions The findings provide evidence for improvements in episodic memory and blood pressure following acute supplementation with haskap berry extract, with higher doses appearing most effective. The cognitive findings concur with previous literature that suggests episodic memory effects, and not executive function effects, are most prevalent in older adults following anthocyanin-rich berry supplementation. The blood pressure outcome is consistent with a vasodilatory mechanism of action