Migration and Economic Challenges in West Africa

This paper burdened itself with the examination of the economic  challenges of migration in West Africa. The movement of people from one place to another is what is basically known as migration. It is that aspect of life which human beings share with other animals. Migration is a common  phenomenon in human history. Every country has been affected in one way or the other by migration. West Africa is said to have a long history of  movement of people within and outside the sub-region. Therefore,  employing the philosophical method of hermeneutics, the paper observed that the movement of the skilled and unskilled West African nationals outside the shores of Africa limits their contributions to their country of origin and thereby poses some challenges to the economic development of the sub-region. The paper therefore submits that the return of the skilled workers of West African origin will go a long way in stabilizing the economy of the sub-region. It is also the submission of this paper that migration has to be properly channelled for the economic development of West Africa.Key Words: Economic Challenges, Emigration, Immigration, Migration, West Africa

SME Development in Malaysia: Domestic and Global Challenges

The primary objectives of this paper are to analyze and discuss the development of Malaysian SMEs and their role, as well as various contributions, in the national economy. The paper goes further by reviewing extant literature to identify the major challenges facing this sector in Malaysia as well as government policies aimed at the development of SMEs. We find that, while the government has implemented many programs to strengthen the performance of SMEs in the economy, Malaysian SMEs still face many challenges, both domestic and external, which could hinder their resilience and competitiveness. A number of strategies which could assist them to access new markets, increase their revenues and expand their customer bases are identified.Malaysian economy, Malaysian SMEs, government assistance programs

Economic Policy Implications of Port Concession in Nigeria

Previous research on privatization has focused on its effect on output, profitability, investment, and efficiency at the level of the firm, neglecting the economic growth and other impacts. Nigeria\u27s port privatization through concession in 2006 covered virtually all the ports in the economy. However, the few studies on the subject neither factored in the complexity that characterize the multiple port system nor controlled for alternative explanations of the changes in the economy. This correlational study tested the property rights theory by investigating whether the changes in production efficiency at the ports following privatization are good predictors of economic growth in Nigeria. Eight years of existing panel data were collected from Nigerian ports, providing 160 observations on several selected variables. The analyses controlled for the influence of confounding or interacting variables and addressed the complexity of the port system using linear programming. The multiple regression analysis showed that privatization, deregulation, cargo increases, interest rate, and inflation rate accounted for high variations in short and long-term economic growth. Port privatization transmitted growth to the economy through cargo throughput increases. The Malmquist linear programming analysis revealed overall but modest improvements in production efficiency changes after the privatization. By isolating possible areas of efficiency improvements, this study may inform port managers in Nigeria on ways to improve overall competitiveness. The potential contribution of the research to social change lies in clearly identifying the critical variables to economic growth in Nigeria to aid economic planning, poverty alleviation and improving the quality of life

The Nature of Climate Science: Challenges for the Development of Climate Change Science Literacy in Education

Despite raising awareness and promoting knowledge and skills-development for education about climate change, efforts by the education sector to promote the development of climate change science literacy in schools is challenged by the nature of climate science. We illuminated the nature of climate science by analysing literature on the nature of science that foregrounds discussions in climate science, and found that climate science involves mostly complex systems and problems; the scope of climate science is vast and interdisciplinary; most issues and problems in climate science are geographic in nature; climate science is characterised by uncertainty and disagreement; and, it is highly politicised. Unless education policymakers and curriculum designers consider these factors when formulating pedagogical intervention frameworks for a more effective and efficient climate change education; nurturing climate change science literacy in schools will be ever more elusiv

Moisture Sorption Isotherms and Isotherm Model Performance Evaluation for Food and Agricultural Products

Moisture sorption characteristics of agricultural and food products play important roles in such technological processes as drying, handling, packaging, storage, mixing, freeze-drying and other processes that require the prediction of food stability, shelf life, glass transition and estimation of drying time and texture and prevention of deteriorative reactions. They are useful in the computation of thermodynamic energies of moisture in the products. An understanding of moisture sorption phenomena in products, moisture sorption isotherm (MSI) determination techniques and moisture sorption isotherm model evaluation procedures would be useful in the development or selection, modeling and controlling as well as optimization of appropriate processes to make for enhanced efficiency. The phenomena addressed in this chapter are equilibrium moisture content (EMC)-water activity (aw) relationships and MSI types, temperature influence on isotherms and occurrence of moisture sorption hysteresis. MSI measurement techniques highlighted are the gravimetric, vapor pressure manometric (VPM), hygrometric and inverse gas chromatographic and the use of AquaLab equipment. Commonly used moisture sorption isotherm models (BET, GAB, modified GAB, Hailwood-Horrobin, modified Hailwood-Horrobin, modified Halsey, modified Henderson, modified Chung-Pfost and modified Oswin) were selected, and their evaluation procedures using moisture sorption data were outlined. Static gravimetric technique involving the use of saturated salt solution appears to be the most widely used and recommended method of determining the EMC of agricultural and food products. Most of the MSI models can be fitted to moisture sorption data thorough linearization by logarithmic transformation, while others can be solved using such expression as second-order polynomial. Model goodness of fit can be determined using standard (SE) error of estimate, coefficient of determination (R2), mean relative percentage deviation (P) and fraction explained variation (FEV). The acceptance of a model depends on the nature of its residual plots. A model is considered acceptable if the residual plots show uniform scatter around the horizontal value of zero showing no systemic tendency towards a clear pattern. A model is better than another model if it has lower SE, lower P, higher R2 and higher FEV. Although it appears as if a generalized MSI model is yet to exist, it is recommended that the Ngoddy-Bakker-Arkema (NBA) model should be given thorough going and extensive testing on the MSI of different categories of food as it could prove true to its generalized model posture due to the fundamental nature of its derivation

KM initiatives in the academia: In search of for KM as an emerging field

The academic community has since joined the KM bandwagon set in motion by management consultancy firms and information practitioners. A number of members of the academia and researchers have clamored and are still clamoring for individuals and organizations to view KM as an emerging field, to embrace it, and benefit from its numerous advantages.Yet the nature, scope method, and validity aspects of KM remain ill defined.In fact there is no consensus regarding the claim that KM is a new field with its own research base, since much of the terminology and techniques used, such as knowledge mapping, seem to have been borrowed from both IM and librarianship.The discrepancy has ranged from authors who see KM as an emerging discipline, to others who claim that firms and information professionals have been practicing KM-related activities for years, and to those who insists that there is no such thing as KM.In this study, the concept of KM is examined in the Web sites of leading business schools.A few cases were identified through a literature search of ABI Inform and the Internet.Each case was reviewed and details of each area of interest were extracted and recorded.The data were compared and analyzed. Secondly, in addition, to the review of journal publications on KM, a survey of experienced academicians was conducted to understand what KM means to them, and KM initiatives in their faculties, departments, or units.Findings are discussed

The Level of Climate Change Science Literacy among Teachers in Seychelles: Implications for the Blue Economy

Climate change poses a serious threat to the ocean on which the Seychelles economy depends for resources and services. To address this concern, the Seychelles National Climate Change Response Strategy recommends education about climate change in all levels of the education system to nurture young people with the capacity to address climate change impacts. This quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional survey measures the level of climate change science literacy among teachers in Seychelles on a five-point summated scale (Extremely Low, Low, Medium, High, and Extremely High). Data was collected with a 15-item Climate Change Science Literacy Questionnaire (CCSLQ) from 572 participants representing 42.62% of the population of teachers in public schools at the time of the survey. Ethical considerations relating to access, informed consent, anonymity, and confidentiality were fulfilled. Collected data was analysed statistically with descriptive techniques (percentage, means, standard error of measurement and confidence interval) and inferential technique with the Fisher’s Exact Chi-Square test. Statistical operation was performed with the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). Results indicate that the majority of the participants (37.4%, n=214) have medium literacy regarding climate change science with misconceptions on all three domains of climate change science: causes, impacts, and solutions. Educational interventions to enhance teachers’ knowledge and understanding of climate change are recommended; otherwise the teachers will transfer inaccurate concepts to the learners. Without young Seychellois with the capacity to take action on climate change, it may be wearisome for Seychelles to achieve a smooth transition to a blue economy

Facilitators Of Internet Promotion (E-Brochure) Adoption By Non-Profit Organisations

Internet promotion, otherwise e-brochure (EB) or partial e-commerce adoption by nonprofit organisations denotes the use of the Internet to provide business and service related information by academic institutions (as in the present study), non-profit organisations, religious organisations, and government agencies to reduce their expenses or to improve their operations and customer service. A field survey of Malaysian universities was conducted to determine the key factors that facilitate the adoption of non-business EB. Since EB adoption decision is a strategic one, a comprehensive list of potential facilitators for the strategic use of information technology (IT) was derived from extant literature and used in collecting data from 65 schools and centres in five public universities in Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The data were factoranalysed to determine the key underlying dimensions of facilitators. On the basis of the resulting five dimensions namely, relative advantage orientation, network orientation, information efficiency orientation, innovativeness orientation, and competitiveness orientation, regression analysis was done to determine the impact of the five dimensions on non-business EB adoption

Looking through the Lens of Complexity Theory: An Evaluation of Climate Change and Coronavirus 2019 Outbreak

When world leaders and delegates convened in Madrid, Spain in December 2019 for the 25th Congress of Parties (COP-25) to re-evaluate their obligations to the Paris Agreement on climate change, they could not prefigure coronavirus was about to overrun humanity. Virtually everyone describes climate change as the most complex ecological and social crisis confronting society in this century. When coronavirus outbreak struck humanity in December 2019, virtually everyone also describes it as the most complex crisis that had struck mankind since the end of Second World War. Both crises have also attracted significant response from policymakers; yet no research has weighed these two common challenges of our time side-by-side in a single study to establish whether they have equivalent level of complexity. This is crucial because confronting a problem without first understanding its complexity would culminate in a waste of resources and or failure to find a permanent solution to it. To address this concern, this paper evaluates global climate change and corona-virus 2019 outbreak using complexity theory as a conceptual framework, and makes recommendations for policy and research based on the outcomes

Neural Network Based Load Frequency Control for Restructuring Power Industry

In this study, an artificial neural network (ANN) application of load frequency control (LFC) of a Multi-Area power system by using a neural network controller is presented. The comparison between a conventional Proportional  Integral (PI) controller and the proposed artificial neural networks controller is showed that the proposed controller can generate an improved dynamic response for a step load change. The same technique is then applied to control a system compose of two single units tied together though a power line. Electric load variations can happen independently in both units. Both neural controllers are trained with the back propagation-through-time algorithm. Use of a neural network to model the dynamic system is avoided by introducing the Jacobian matrices of the system in the back propagation chain used in controller training. For this application, MATLAB-Simulink software is used