A People-Centred Social Totality Approach to Low-Income Housing in the Developing World

In a significant part of the developing world, especially sub-Saharan Africa, public housing policies and implementation have depended on a top-to-bottom approach in an attempt to ensure housing supply. However, public authorities sometimes backed by international agencies preferring to operate through the housing market have failed to meet the housing need, especially for low-income people. Even when the users are involved like in the slum dwellers association, the organisation of the process is majorly controlled by the public authorities. While government and public institutions attained minimal success in housing provision for the lowest classes in the society, the people have been more successful in housing production. This chapter situates the housing problem and policy responses in the context of the developing world characterised by limited capacity to control and manage the largely more successful informal people-controlled housing production structure. A cyclic people-centred strategy framework for low-income housing is proposed based on town-gown collaboration in studying low-income people, their activated housing process and the houses produced to guide present strategies and synthesise future strategies and policy. This framework emanates from Henri Lefebvre’s social totality explanation to understand how low-income people negotiate housing from the social context

Influence of Varietal Difference on Qualities of Osmosized Tomato in the South Western Nigeria

Mechanism of mass transfer phenomena of three major varieties available in the South-western Nigeria market are Roma-VF Koledowo and Ibadan-Local variety. Tomato varieties pre-treated in a binary (sugar and salt) osmotic solution of three solution concentration; three temperature; five osmotic time and fruit to solution ratio 1:10 was studied by developing a conceptual model to describe the Water Loss and Solid Gains. Initial moisture content was determined using the AOAC standards. Statistical analyses of the data within and across varieties were carried out. This study therefore investigated the effect of varietal difference on the qualities of osmosized tomato i.e. the highest water loss and least solid gain. Effect of pretreatment varies with variety with a mean water loss range value of 0.2615-0.3031. Water-loss and Solid gain were significant (p?0.05) for all variables considered. Koledowo with the thickest skin had the least owing to its ability to allow moisture migration Keywords: Water loss, Solid gain, Osmotic time, Varietal difference, Pretreatmen

Effects of Drying Temperature on The Effective Coefficient of Moisture Diffusivity and Activation Energy in Ibadan-Local Tomato Variety (lycopersicum esculentum)

A study of the mechanism of mass transfer phenomena of Ibadan-local variety was carried out. Ibadan-Local tomato varieties pre-treated in a binary (sugar and salt) osmotic solution of concentration (45/15oBrix), solution temperature (30, 40, 50oC), was studied by developing a mathematical model to describe the Water Loss (WL) and Solid Gains (SG). Drying was monitored at three temperatures (40, 45 and 50oC) until   equilibrium weight was achieved using the oven-dry method. Five thin layer drying models (Exponential, Henderson & Pabis, Page, Modified Page and Logarithmic) were compared and fitted into the experimental values of the non-linear moisture ratio; MR. The diffusion coefficient and activation energy were determined using the Arrhenius equation. Drying occurred in the falling rate phase and different models fit at different temperatures. Calculated values of effective moisture diffusivity varied from 1.17-3.51x10-8 to 1.25-3.13x10-8 and activation energy varied from a maximum of 52.61KJ/mol in treated to 46.81 KJ/mol in untreated tomato. At all temperatures, effective coefficient of moisture diffusivity and activation energy values was higher in osmosized tomato Keywords: Osmotic dehydration, Water loss, Solid gain, Effective moisture diffusivity and Activation energy

PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG RETIRED ELITE ATHLETES IN NIGERIA

Retirement from sport is inevitable and unavoidable. It is a major source of threat to the health-related quality of life of retired elite athletes especially among who refute involvement in adequate planning and preparation for life after sports. The purpose of this study was to examine psychological characteristics of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among retired elite athletes in Oyo State, Nigeria. Two hypotheses were tested. The study employed descriptive survey research design. Purposive sampling technique was used to select one hundred (100) (Male = 63, Female = 37) retired elite athletes. The standardized questionnaires of Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS), Centre for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-DS) and the Short-Form 8 (SF-8) Health Survey were used for collection of data from the respondents. The reliability coefficient of the instrument used are 0.86, 0.84 and 0.88 respectively. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics of frequency counts, percentages and multiple regression. The result of the study showed that, there is significant joint contributions of psychological characteristics on HRQoL (F(2, 97) = 107.581, R = .74, R2 = .686, Adj R2 = .686, p<0.05) with 68.6% of degree of variance. Also, there is significant relative contributions of psychological characteristics [athletic-identity (β = -0.079, t = 0.41, p < .05) and depression (β = -.297, t = -1.521, p<0.05)] on HRQoL. Based on the findings, it was concluded that psychological intervention programme that promotes HRQoL and prepares retired elite athletes for life after sports should be developed and inculcated into the elite athletes’ programme before retirement, while regular visitation to psychological and mental health care centres for optimum advise on health-related wellbeing should carried out by the retired elite athletes.   Article visualizations

A Study of Job Satisfaction of Secondary School Administrators in Kano State, Nigeria

This paper was concerned with studying the job satisfaction of secondary school administrators in Kano state, Nigeria. Survey design was used and a random sampling was used to select the study sample of 421 subjects used for the study. The Job Descriptive Index was used to collect data. Five hypotheses were raised in the study and the data collected was analysed using t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Findings of the study showed that there was no significant difference in male and female; public and private; rural and urban administrators' level of job satisfaction. Also, the study found that there was a significant difference in the level of satisfaction with years of experience as well as with age, marital status, school size and educational qualification.African Research Review Vol. 2 (2) 2008 pp. 94-10

Testing the applicability of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) on the entrepreneurial intentions of youth in Botswana

Abstract: Botswana youth constitutes 60% of the country’s population. Despite the effort of the Botswana government to invest in the educational and vocational attainment and accomplishments of its youth, high levels of unemployment among the Botswana youth remain a reality. The creation of an institutional support platform or framework has not created a spirit of self-reliance, ingenuity and entrepreneurial culture among the youth of the country. This study thus seeks to investigate the nexus of the relationship between entrepreneurial youth in Botswana’s self-efficacy, attitude, perceived access to finance and entrepreneurial intentions. The empirical study is descriptive and quantitative in nature with 500 usable survey instruments analysed. Data was analysed using correlation and regression analysis in order to explicate the association and the relationship of the subconstructs in this study. The findings established that entrepreneurial self-efficacy and attitude have a direct association with entrepreneurial intentions, while perceived access to finance for the youth of Botswana has no association with entrepreneurial intentions in the country. The study therefore provides not only a strategic anecdote to policymakers on areas of institutional support for the youth of Botswana, but also explicates a conative, cognitive and affective need for structural engagement for this segment of the Botswana population

Selected factors affecting the adoption of Internet banking among Generation Y customers in South Africa

Abstract: The research study investigates the extent to which the attitude of Generation Y banking customers is influenced by their awareness of the ease of use and web-based privacy of the Internet banking service. Furthermore, the influence of their attitude on behavioural intention in the future is determined. A quantitative and descriptive research design was used and data was collected from Generation Y banking customers in Gauteng, using a self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were utilised to provide an explanation of the demographics of the sample and multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relationships between perceived ease of use, perceived web-based privacy, attitude and behavioural intentions. The model tested confirms the hypothesised relationships between the perceived ease of use, perceived web-based privacy, attitude and behavioural intention of Generation Y banking customers. Attitude is linked to its two antecedents, perceived ease of use and perceived web-based privacy, and to their outcome, behavioural intention. These findings could assist the five major retail banks in South Africa to understand how perceived ease of use, perceived web-based privacy and attitude ultimately lead to positive behavioural intentions of Generation Y banking customers in terms of Internet banking adoption

Trends in Aridity of the Arid and Semi-Arid Regions of Northern Nigeria

Aridity index (AI) is a numerical indicator of the degree of dryness of the climate at a given location. These indicators serve to identify and delimit regions that suffer from a deficit of available water, a condition that can severely affect the effective use of agricultural land and water resources development. The focus of this paper is to determine the trend and map out the aridity of the drought prone areas of northern Nigeria. Three decade’s (1981–2010) annual rainfall and, minimum and maximum temperature records for 11 synoptic meteorological stations were collected from NIMET Office, Lagos and used. De Martonne’s aridity index formula was applied to the data and aridity indices were derived for the region. The derived aridity indices were subjected to time series analysis and classification of the region into aridity zones was carried out based on the derived aridity indices from which an aridity map of the region was produced. Results of the time series analysis show that only Kaduna indicated a decreasing aridity while the other stations exhibit a significantly positive tendency towards increasing dryness. The region is classified into four aridity zones based on the aridity indices as: slightly humid zone (Kaduna and Zaria areas), moderately arid areas (Yelwa, Gusau, Kano and Bauchi), semi arid regions (Sokoto, Potiskum, Maiduguri) and the arid zone (areas around Nguru, Hadejia and Kano). It is concluded that the drought prone areas of northern Nigeria are witnessing increasing aridity which accounts for the shrinking of most dams and other surface reservouirs in the region. This has necessitated accessing of underground water from even the third aquifer at some locations. It is recommended therefore, that the dredging of all the existing dams in northern Nigeria be undertaken in order to improve the storage of more water, just as proper water policy for its sustainable use be formulated by Nigeria. Keywords: aquifer, aridity, drought, dryness, Indices, time serie

EXPLORING SOURSOP KERNEL AS A SUSTAINABLE BIOFUEL: ANALYZING PHYSICAL AND SOLID FLOW PROPERTIES FOR FEASIBILITY ASSESSMENT

  Soursop kernel is an oil-bearing seed containing about 25% non-edible oil per 100 g sample making it a potential feedstock for biofuel production. However, exploring the full potential of the oil requires data to design and fabricate appropriate machines for its processing. So, this necessitates a thorough examination of its physical and solid flow behaviour in relation to moisture contents. The experiments conducted on rewetted samples revealed that as moisture content (mc) increased from 8% to 32.5% dry basis (db), the length, width, thickness, arithmetic and geometric mean diameter, volume, surface area, sphericity, and thousand kernels weight increased from 11.40-12.06 mm, 7.04-7.92 mm, 4.58-5.34 mm, 7.69-8.44 mm, 7.12-7.49 mm, 6.5–8.13 cm3, 160.19-199.05 mm2, 0.62- 0.66 and 186.4–291 g, respectively. The true density decreased from 720 to 670 kg/m³, whereas the bulk density increased from 470 to 570 kg/m³. The angle of repose linearly increased from 25.8° to 39.2° as moisture content increased. The highest mean values for coefficients of friction were observed on mild steel surfaces (0.44 for static and 0.53 for dynamic) at 8.0% mc (db) while the lowest values were recorded on stainless steel surfaces (0.20 for static and 0.37 for dynamic) at both 32.5% and 8.0%, (mc, db). The data obtained will prove beneficial to engineers in the design and development of appropriate machines, as well as other handling and processing equipment such as oil expellers, so as to explore the full industrial application of the oil for biodiesel production and other chemical productio