A COMPARISON OF FUZZY TIME SERIES AND LEAST-SQUARE METHOD IN FORECASTING STUDENTS’ ENROLMENT

Enrolment forecasting, which provides information for decision making and budget planning, is important in many ways to higher education. Because of its importance, researchers have proposed many forecasting methods to improve accuracy. Different methods such as genetic algorithm, least square that are used to forecast enrolment of student do not give relatively accurate results. However, obtaining accuracy is not an easy task, as many factors have impacts on enrolment numbers. In this work, a fuzzy time series was developed for efficient enrolment forecasting. The model is made up of four steps which are definition of the universe of discourse and intervals, fuzzification of historical data, establishment of fuzzy relationships and enrolment forecast. The max-min operator was used as universe of discourse and we compared our proposed method with the existing linear regression method. The historical enrolment figures of the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta were used as a data set for testing and were implemented using Visual Basic. The forecasting result of the fuzzy time series method is compared with that of the existing least square method, the fuzzy time series method produces the smallest values of the mean square error (MSE) as compared with the least square method. The application was also used to predict students’ enrolment for the next five years. The proposed method was found to obtain more accurate forecasting results than the existing method

Experimental Investigation of Frequency Chaos Game Representation for In Silico and Accurate Classification of Viral Pathogens from Genomic Sequences

This paper presents an experimental investigation to determine the efficacy and the appropriate order of Frequency Chaos Game Representation (FCGR) for accurate and in silico classification of pathogenic viruses. For this study, we curated genomic sequences of selected viral pathogens from the virus pathogen database and analysis resource corpus. The viral genomes were encoded using the first to seventh order FCGRs so as to produce training and testing genomic data features. Thereafter, four different kernels of naïve Bayes classifier were experimentally trained and tested with the generated FCGR genomic features. The performance result with the highest average classification accuracy of 98% was returned by the third and fourth order FCGRs. However, due to consideration for memory utilization, computational efficiency vis-à-vis classification accuracy, the third order FCGR is deemed suitable for accurate classification of viral pathogens from genome sequences. This provides a promising foundation for developing genomic based diagnostic toolkit that could be used to promptly address the global incidence of epidemics from pathogenic viruses

The Impact of IT Investment on Service Delivery: A Case Study of Ladoke Akintola University

The past decade witnessed an extensive use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in all forms of work all over the world. It has given birth to contemporary e-Business, e-Health, e-Government and e- Education to mention but a few. This paper aims at investigating the level of investment in ICT in Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, the level of usage, its impact on service delivery as well as the inhibiting factors against its use. Survey instrument was used in this study and the collected data analysed based on such issues as availability of ICTs, Organizational Readiness (OR) and Organizational Support (OS) amongst others. Findings revealed that investment on IT has positive impact on services delivery through ICT tool deployment for teaching, examination processing, student registration and assignment

Woodland Heights Neighborhood Charter Plan Update

On January 1, 2012, the City Council of the City of Des Moines approved the recommendation supporting the selection of Woodland Heights as one of the five neighborhoods to participate in the Charter Neighborhood Program. Neighborhoods selected for the pilot program are required to work with city staff as well as graduate students from Iowa State University’s Department of Community and Regional Planning (ISU Planning Team) to update their respective neighborhood plans. The Woodland Heights Organization (WHO), the neighborhood’s representative neighborhood Whitmer Estate National Historic Register association, began the planning process with a survey of the residents of Woodland Heights. The survey was designed, distributed, and executed by members of WHO. They collected a total of 119 surveys, which were then analyzed by the ISU Planning Team. The survey provided a window into the needs of the neighborhood’s residents. It revealed that neighborhood residents are pleased with the quality of the life that Woodland Heights offers. For example, most respondents cited a high perception of public safety, a strong sense of community and education opportunities as qualities of the neighborhood. The survey data also indicates that the residents deeply care about the aesthetic quality and historic significance of the neighborhood. The results of this survey are fully presented in Appendix A at the end of this document.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/resilientneighborhoods_plans/1002/thumbnail.jp

Performance analysis of grid-tied photovoltaic system under varying weather condition and load

Model and simulation of the impact of the distribution grid-tied photovoltaic (PV) system feeding a variable load with its control system have been investigated in this study. Incremental Conductance (IncCond) algorithm based on maximum power point tracking (MPPT) was implemented for the PV system to extract maximum power under different weather conditions when solar irradiation varies between 250W/m2 and 1000W/m2. The proposed system is modelled and simulated with MATLAB/Simulink tools. Under different weather conditions, the dynamic performance of the PV system is evaluated. The results obtained show the efficacy of the proposed MPPT method in response to rapid daytime weather variations. The results also show that the surplus power generated is injected into the grid when the injected power from the PV system is higher than the load demand; otherwise, the grid supplies the load

Internet service providers responsibilities in botnet mitigation: a Nigerian perspective

Botnet-based attack is dangerous and extremely difficult to overcome as all the primary mitigation methods are passive and limited in focus. A combine efforts of internet service providers (ISPs) are better guides since they can monitor the traffic that traverse through their networks. However, ISPs are not legally banded to this role and may not view security as a primary concern. Towards understudying the involvement of ISPs in Botnet mitigation in Nigeria, this study elicited and summarized mitigation measures from scientific literatures to create a reference model which was validated by structured interview. Although, ISPs role is seen to be voluntary and poorly incentivized, the providers still take customers security very serious but concentrate more on the preventive and notification measures

Identifying key challenges facing healthcare systems in Africa and potential solutions

Introduction: Healthcare systems in Africa suffer from neglect and underfunding, leading to severe challenges across the six World Health Organization (WHO) pillars of healthcare delivery. We conducted this study to identify the principal challenges in the health sector in Africa and their solutions for evidence-based decisions, policy development and program prioritization. Methods: The study was conducted as part of a recent African Epidemiological Association Meeting in Maputo, Mozambique with participants drawn from 11 African countries, Cuba, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Participants were divided into ten groups, consisting of 7 to 10 persons each. Brainstorming approaches were used in a structured, modified nominal group process exercise to identify key challenges and strategies to mitigate healthcare service challenges in Africa. Identified challenges and solutions were prioritised by ranking 1-5, with 1 most important and 5 being least important. Results: The first three challenges identified were inadequate human resources (34.29%), inadequate budgetary allocation to health (30%) and poor leadership and management (8.45%). The leading solutions suggested included training and capacity building for health workers (29.69%), increase budgetary allocation to health (20.31%) and advocacy for political support and commitment (12.31%). Conclusion: The underdeveloped healthcare systems in Africa need radical solutions with innovative thought to break the current impasse in service delivery. For example, public-private initiatives should be sought, where multinational companies extracting resources from Africa might be encouraged to plough some of the profits back into healthcare for the communities providing the workforce for their commercial activities. Most problems and their solutions lie within human resources, budget allocation and management. These should be accorded the highest priority for better health outcomes

Employability and entrepreneurship skills training programme for final year undergraduate students in Nigeria

The main aims of the present project are develop a training programme to enhance employability and entrepreneurship skills to final year students; promote entrepreneurial culture, self-employment, and economic independence; and capacity building among staff at the University of Ibadan. Twenty final year students participated in the training for 8 days spread over a 10 week period. Results showed that all the participants reported their experience on the program as highly rewarding. They also reported having acquired numerous skills in the course of this intervention, including: entrepreneurial ability, communication skills, assertiveness, networking, listening ability, conflict resolution and self analysis and development

Ten Simple Rules for Organizing a Virtual Conference—Anywhere

1 International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Nairobi, Kenya, 2 Faculty of Life Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom, 3 Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria, 4 Institute of Bioinformatics, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria, 5 Moroccan Society for Bioinformatics Institute, Morocco, 6 South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa, 7 University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, 8 University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, United States of America, 9 Biotechnology Unit, University of Buea, Buea, South West Region, Cameroon, 10 International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya, 11 Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, 12 International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya, 13 Bioinformatics Organization, Hudson, Massachusetts, United States of America, 14 Bioinformatics Team, Center for Development of Advanced Computing, Pune University Campus, Pune, India, 15 Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of Americ

Computational Biology and Bioinformatics in Nigeria

Over the past few decades, major advances in the field of molecular biology, coupled with advances in genomic technologies, have led to an explosive growth in the biological data generated by the scientific community. The critical need to process and analyze such a deluge of data and turn it into useful knowledge has caused bioinformatics to gain prominence and importance. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary research area that applies techniques, methodologies, and tools in computer and information science to solve biological problems. In Nigeria, bioinformatics has recently played a vital role in the advancement of biological sciences. As a developing country, the importance of bioinformatics is rapidly gaining acceptance, and bioinformatics groups comprised of biologists, computer scientists, and computer engineers are being constituted at Nigerian universities and research institutes. In this article, we present an overview of bioinformatics education and research in Nigeria. We also discuss professional societies and academic and research institutions that play central roles in advancing the discipline in Nigeria. Finally, we propose strategies that can bolster bioinformatics education and support from policy makers in Nigeria, with potential positive implications for other developing countries. © 2014 Fatumo et al.SAF was supported by H3ABioNet NABDA Node, Abuja, Nigeria with NIH Common Fund Award/NHGRI Grant Number U41HG006941 and Genetic Epidemiology Group at Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.Published versio