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 SME’s 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 SME’s IT adoption, whilst, technology and practices factors were found to have a partial inhibiting effect on SME’s IT adoption. This research provides a multi-dimensional perspective for the enhancement of SME’s 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

Career Guidance and Entrepreneurship Education in Nigeria

Entrepreneurship education is a necessity in addressing the problem of unemployment of school leavers (secondary and tertiary education graduates) in Nigeria and the promotion of employment market for those who cannot employ themselves. Entrepreneurship education aims at preparing and equipping students of secondary and tertiary educational system with relevant theories, knowledge and practice of entrepreneurships. It is to prepare students to venture into job creation and nurturing of entrepreneurship successfully in emerging economies of Nigeria.  The paper focuses on career guidance and entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship skills needed in careers, examples of entrepreneurs required in Nigeria, how to identify entrepreneurship skills and theories supporting career choice development. The role of self-    concept and self-esteem in career choice. The paper concludes with   recommendations on the need to place emphasis on entrepreneurship education in order to save the Nigerian school leavers and graduates from idleness and save Nigerian economy from diving downward. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Education, Career

Optimal location of static var compensator device for damping oscillations

Problem statement: Static Var Compensators (SVC) devices are used to improve voltage and reactive power conditions in AC systems. An additional task of SVC is to increase transmission capacity as result of power oscillation damping. The effectiveness of this controller depends on its optimal location and proper signal selection in the power system network. A residue factor had been proposed to find the optimal location of the SVC controllers to damp out the inter-area mode of oscillations. Approach: The proposed residue factor was based on the relative participation of the parameters of SVC controller to the critical mode. A simple approach of computing the residue factor had been proposed, which combined the linearized differential algebraic equation model of the power system and the SVC output equations. Input-output controllability analyses were used to assess the most appropriate input signals (stabilizing signal) for SVC device. Results: The placements of SVC controller had been obtained for the base case as well as for the critical contingency cases. Conclusion: The effectiveness of the proposed method was demonstrated on 25 bus of south Malaysian power system

The role of an aggressive factor in peptic ulcer disease (pud)

The stomach is the expanded part of the digestive tract between the esophagus and the small intestine. It acts as a reservoir and has chief function in enzymatic digestion. Several types of glands provide different types of secretions in the alimentary tract most of which act as lubricant and to protect the stomach mucosa from excoriation.The pathophysiology of peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is often described as an imbalance between aggressive factors and mucosal protective mechanisms. Helicobacter pylori, a gram-negative organism that has been identified as a potential causative agent in the pathogenesis of peptic ulcer disease, which is diagnosed by invasive or non-invasivemethods. Three classes of drugs have been shown to have a direct effect on Helicobacter pylori: antibiotics, bismuth salts, and proton pump inhibitors. Because Helicobacter pylori is difficult to eradicate, most treatment regimes combine agents from two or even all three of these cases. In all of them, patients with active peptic disease shouldalso receive a total of 6 weeks of acid suppression with an H2-receptor antagonist. The discovery of Helicobacter pylori as a gastrointestinal pathogen has had a profound effect on current concepts of the pathogenesis and treatment of peptic ulcer disease. Key words: peptic ulcer disease, Helicobacter pylori, H2-receptor antagonist, pathophysiolog

Preliminary mortality and eclosion: dose-determining factors of aqueous extract of Hibiscus sabdariffa in Drosophila melanogaster

Background: This study investigated the toxicity of Hibiscus sabdariffa extract using simple end point assays (mortality and eclosion assay) in Drosophila melanogaster (Harwich strain) flies. Methods: The study was carried out in two phases (phases I and II) and in an array of concentrations of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 mg/ml in phase I; 100, 250, 500, 750 and 1000mg/ml in phase II for the period of 168 hours. Thirty (30) 4-day old flies were used in each concentration and mortality was recorded every 24 hours for the period of the study. Eclosion was scored after emergence of the adult flies. Results: There was no significant difference (p<0.05) in mortality and eclosion between the (experimental) concentrations and the control in the first phase of this study, indicating low/zero toxicity to the parent and the emerged flies. However, higher concentrations of 250 through 1000mg/ml of the second phase showed significant (p<0.05) increased mortality and decreased eclosion scores, indicating high acute toxicity to D. melanogaster. Conclusion: The LC50 of Hibiscus sabdariffa after 168 hours was 427.1mg/10g diet in Drosophila melanogaster and much eclosion was recorded at doses between 10 - 100mg/10g diet as compared with doses between 250 - 1000mg/10g diet. Eclosion can be considered a factor in the determination of LC50 in Drosophila melanogaster. Keywords: Drosophila melanogaster, Hibiscus sabdariffa, mortality, eclosion, concentratio

Bibliotherapy as a Problem-Solving Skill of Counsellors and Teachers for Character and Skills Development in Ogun State, Nigeria

Emotional disturbance is a psychological situation in which one’s feelings are heightened, causing   anxiety to set in. This disturbance can lead to low academic achievements in affected students. It takes away children’s attention from realities and this affect their academic, character and skills development that are of benefit to the individual emotionally disturbed student and his community. Bibliotherapy is one of the solutions to emotional disturbance and as a problem-solving skill of counsellors, bibliotherapy will be understood if applied to students at the secondary school level, a time they can read and assimilate content of therapeutic material in a book. Causes of emotional problem in children are many and come in different ways, ranging from death of loved ones to reasons that make children become disturbed. A survey research designed was used to obtained respondents’ opinion on perceived effect of problem-solving skills of counsellors on emotionally disturbed students in public secondary schools in Ogun State, Nigeria.  A sample of 267 respondents, gave a grand mean of 4.50 and a standard variation of 0.607 established the effectiveness of bibliotherapy problem-solving skills of counsellors. The study concluded that bibliotherapy is a problem-solving skill of counsellors on emotional problems

The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic and Agricultural Knowledge Sharing for Small Scale Farmers in Katsina State

The global pandemic of Corona Virus Disease of 2019 (COVID- 19) has affected many sectors including small scale farming. This study assess the effect of Covid-19 in agriculture and identified Small Scale Farmers’ (SSF) information sharing platforms and its efficiency level used for agricultural activities during the pandemic for the sustainability of human life and economic survival. Katsina state government has taken some measures that include luck down, restriction of movement, market closures, social distancing and self-isolation in majority of local government areas to stop the spread of the virus. Three research questions were developed to guide the study. Survey design was adopted and 700 small scale farmers in Katsina state were the target population. A total number of 280 respondents were randomly sampled using cluster sampling technique. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The medium and platforms used by farmers to share agricultural information include traditional and modern methods. During the Pandemic the finding revealed that farmers used modern methods which include; Agric Dealers, Facebook, WhatsApp, Phone calls and SMS plat forms. But prior to the pandemic, farmers mainly used traditional methods that include; farmers association, farm visits, personal relationship, family house and market day plat forms to share their agricultural information. The study also recommends that Government and banks should provide non interest loans, financial support and free android phones that can be accessible to small scale farmers with less assessment criteria to invest in their farming to address COVID- 19 challenges and improve agricultural knowledge sharing

Information Seeking Patterns of Small Scale Farmers for Farming Activities in Katsina State, Nigeria

This study identified Small Scale Farmers (SSF) information seeking patterns used and types of crops produced for effective farming activities. Three research questions and one hypothesis were developed to guide the study. Cross sectional survey design was adopted in which a total of seven hundred (700) registered small scale farmers’ cooperative associations from three agricultural zones of Katsina state formed the population. A total number of two hundred and eighty (280) respondents were randomly sampled using cluster sampling technique. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in which the null hypothesis was tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMCC). The findings of the study revealed that the information seeking patterns used by SSF is through asking questions, verbal conversations and collaborations then followed by chatting and referral. The findings revealed that more than seventy percent (70%) of the farmers engaged in different types of farming activities that includes rain-fed farming, livestock farming, and irrigation farming activities. The findings revealed the highest crops produced by the small holder farmers are; beans, millet, maize and sorghum. The study recommends that government and farmers’ cooperative associations should create discussion forums at local government and ward levels to attend to small holder farmers when seeking information for successful farming activities

An intense Nigerian stock exchange market prediction using logistic with back-propagation ANN model

This paper is a continuation of our research work on the Nigerian Stock Exchange Market (NSEM) uncertainties, In our previous work (Magaji et al, 2013) we presented the Naive Bayes and SVM-SMO algorithms as a tools for predicting the Nigerian Stock Exchange Market; subsequently we used the same transformed data of the NSEM and explored the implementation of the Logistic function on Back-propagation algorithm on the WEKA platform, and results obtained, made us to also conclude that the Back-propagation model of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) performed very well and thus it is another algorithm that can effectively and efficiently be used for predicting the Nigerian Stock Exchange Market.Keywords: Nigerian Stock Market, Prediction, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Artificial Neural Network, Back-propagatio