Institutional Repositories: Features, Architecture, Design and Implementation Technologies

Europe is the leading continent in terms of active adoption and use of Digital Libraries – particularly Institutional Repositories (IRs). Africa has not done poorly in this area with a steady increase from 19 repositories in 2008 to 46 in January, 2011 but there is need to raise awareness and channel efforts towards making IRs easily accessible to Africans through ubiquitous channels such as hand-helds and mobile devices. This paper reviews the features, architecture, design and implementation technologies of IRs. In addition, it highlights viable research areas that can be pursued by African researchers in the field of Digital Libraries. It also encourages research efforts to focus on areas that will be beneficial to Africa

A Review of Models for Evaluating Quality in Open Source Software

Open source products/projects targeting the same or similar applications are common nowadays. This makes choosing a tricky task. Quality is one factor that can be considered when choosing among similar open source solutions. In order to measure quality in software, quality models can be used. Open source quality models emerged due to the inability of traditional quality models to measure unique features (such as community) of open source software. The aim of the paper therefore is to examine the characteristic features, unique strengths, and limitations of existing open source quality models. In addition, we compare the models based on some selected attributes

A Framework for M-Commerce Implementation in Nigeria

The Internet has brought about the concept of grobalilation, which has revolutionized the way business is transacted all over the world. The E-comnterce is of particular interest, though widely used but still has some security challenges in terms of transparency and confidentiality of transactiorts. This papei focuses on M-contnrcrce as an extensiott to E-commerce hnplementatiott with the Bankiltg industry proposed as core implementation consideration in ortler to guarantee high level security. We have reviewed some cqses of onlilrc frauds and eliscussed tlte emerging critical issues afficting software development of M-cornmerce applicatiotts. Afranrcworkfor M-commerce implementationis therefore,proposed for countries such as Nigeria, Romania and Indonesia where cases of online scam are alanning

Clinical Decision Diagnosis Support System for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practitioners in Lifestyle-related Diseases Management

Chronic diseases accounted for 60% of all deaths – corresponding to a projected 36.65 million deaths worldwide in 2007. 2.8% of the world population suffers from diabetes mellitus and it may cross 5.4% by the year 2025. Hypertension is a major burden on health care. Prevalence of lifestyle-related diseases increases. Low accessibility to and non-affordability of orthodox medicine by rural dwellers and their need to keep healthy to be economically productive have led to their dependence on medicinal plants to remedy afflictions. Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) attracts patronage due to patients’ dissatisfaction with conventional health care, a desire for treatment and care that work, good relationship with practitioner, provision of information, a desire for greater control over one’s health, and a desire for cultural and philosophical congruence with personal beliefs about health and illness. Medicinal plants’ threatened sustainability makes adulteration and species’ substitutions reduce their efficacy, quality and safety. It was found that CAM practitioners who participated in this study relied heavily upon knowledge that had 'stood the test of time' (traditional theory and practice) and 'that which worked' (experientially based knowledge) as the basis for clinical decision-making. The safe, effective and efficient delivery of client care is informed primarily by sound clinical decision making. Body mass index (BMI) plays a significant role in the process. Strategies that guide practitioners through the process of decision making may not only foster professional excellence in CAM practice, but also help to improve the quality of client care. Clinical decision-making is a complex process that is reliant on accurate and timely information. Clinicians are dependent (or should be dependent) on massive amounts of information and knowledge to make decisions that are in the best interest of the patient. CAM practitioners of modern time need currency and timeliness on computations of patients’ body mass index, waist circumference and body shape combination; product/therapy data on therapeutic efficacy; product quality and safety; adverse reactions and herb-drug interactions. This paper presents a clinical decision diagnosis system supporting CAM practitioners to effectively treat emerging lifestyle-related diseases with medicinal plants. Keywords: body mass index, complementary and alternative medicine, lifestyle-related diseases, medicinal plants, clinical decision support syste

Multimedia-based Medicinal Plants Sustainability Management System

Medicinal plants are increasingly recognized worldwide as an alternative source of efficacious and inexpensive medications to synthetic chemo-therapeutic compound. Rapid declining wild stocks of medicinal plants accompanied by adulteration and species substitutions reduce their efficacy, quality and safety. Consequently, the low accessibility to and non-affordability of orthodox medicine costs by rural dwellers to be healthy and economically productive further threaten their life expectancy. Finding comprehensive information on medicinal plants of conservation concern at a global level has been difficult. This has created a gap between computing technologies’ promises and expectations in the healing process under complementary and alternative medicine. This paper presents the design and implementation of a Multimedia-based Medicinal Plants Sustainability Management System addressing these concerns. Medicinal plants’ details for designing the system were collected through semi-structured interviews and databases. Unified Modelling Language, Microsoft-Visual-Studio.Net, C#3.0, Microsoft-Jet-Engine4.0, MySQL, Loquendo Multilingual Text-to-Speech Software, YouTube, and VLC Media Player were used. Keywords: Complementary and Alternative Medicine, conservation, extinction, medicinal plant, multimedia, phytoconstituents, rural dweller

Usability Evaluation of Mobile Access to Institutional Repository

This paper investigates the usability of the core functionalities of an Institutional Repository on mobile devices. An EPrints-based repository (Covenant University Repository) was used as case study. The core functionalities of the Institutional Repository were modelled using the Unified Modelling Language and tested on five different mobile devices. Questionnaires were designed and administered to users of the repository based on known usability attributes and the results were analysed using SPSS software. Reliability and convergent validity of the questionnaire was estimated by Cronbach’s alpha and produced a result of 0.771, which is above 0.7 - the minimum recommended. Also, the results from the analysis of the usability attributes show that for all the attributes considered, each scored well above 4.00 on a scale of (1-5) which represents good usability. In essence, the results show that the current web version of the repository provides good usability when accessed from a range of mobile devices. The novelty of this work is that it presents a case study of mobile access to Institutional Repositories in an elegant and repeatable way

Complexity Metrics for Cascading Style Sheets

Web applications are becoming important for small and large companies since they are integrated with their business strategies. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) however are an integral part of contemporary Web applications that are perceived as complex by users and this result in hampering its widespread adoption. The factors responsible for CSS complexity include size, variety in its rule block structures, rule block reuse, cohesion and attribute definition in rule blocks. In this paper, we have proposed relevant metric for each of the complexity factors. The proposed metrics are validated through a practical framework. The outcome shows that the proposed metrics satisfy most of the parameters required by the practical framework hence establishing them as well structured

Design and Implementation of a Yoruba Language Mobile Tutor

Yoruba is a popular indigenous language in Nigeria alongside Hausa and Igbo. English language is however the main medium of communication especially in schools and institutions of learning. Over the years there has been unhealthy rivalry and competition between English language and the indigenous Nigerian languages with the latter struggling for survival. The rivalry is further worsen by the wide adoption of mobile technology which is mostly bundled with resources written in English language. Young Nigerians who have not been exposed to Yoruba language as their native language often find it difficult to speak, read, learn and write Yoruba language. There is the fear of trading Nigerian indigenous languages for English Language as the main means of communication due to modernization. The focus for this work is to present the design and implementation of an interactive mobile application with basic tutorials in the learning of Yoruba language on handheld devices. The system has features that assist users to do basic translation of English to Yoruba and fundamental tutorials that will enable people to learn, write, read and speak Yoruba language fluently. The application was designed and modelled with Unified Modelling Language and developed using HTML5, JavaScript and CSS. The application runs seamlessly on handheld devices which has a deep level of penetration and adoption in Nigeria

Application of Experimental Design Method for the Optimisation of Xanthan Gum Production from Pineapple Peels Using Xanthomonas Campestris via Submerged Fermentation

Xanthan gum is a major biopolymer which finds a lot of applications industrially and domestically. Biotechnological production of xanthan gum from waste biomass has been reported to be sustainable in terms of economics and viability. In this study, xanthan gum was produced from pineapple peels using Xanthomonas campestris by submerged fermentation. A  three-variable,  three-level  Box-Behnken  design  (BBD)  was  used  to develop  a  statistical  model  to study the effects of fermentation time, concentration of nitrogen (NH4NO3) and phosphorus (KH2PO4) on the amount of xanthan gum produced. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimise these process variables. Results obtained showed that the model was statistically significant (p<0.0001) and did not show lack of fit (R2=0.989). The results also showed that xanthan gum production was positively influenced by high levels of phosphorus and low levels of nitrogen. Increasing the fermentation time also favoured the production of xanthan gum. Results obtained from RSM revealed that the optimum fermentation time, nitrogen and phosphorus concentration were 3 days, 2 g/L and 15 g/L respectively. Under these conditions, the xanthan concentration was obtained as 8.48 g/L. Validation of the model indicated no significant difference between predicted and experimental values.http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v34i3.1