Modelling Organisational Factors Influencing Sustainable Development Implementation Performance in Higher Education Institutions: An Interpretative Structural Modelling (ISM) Approach

open access articleGlobally, higher education institutions (HEIs) have continued to record varied sustainable development (SD) implementation performances. This variance has been attributed to the presence of certain organisational factors. Whereas previous studies have successfully identified the factors influencing the SD implementation performance in HEIs, few studies have attempted to explore the relationship between these factors and the influence of such a relationship on the management of SD implementation in HEIs. This is the objective of this study. Understandably, an understanding of such relationships will facilitate the development of appropriate frameworks for managing SD implementation in HEIs. Relying on a case study of a South African University of Technology (SAUoT), this study elicits data through a focus group discussion session. An interpretative structural modelling (ISM) focus group protocol indicating extant pair-wise relationships between identified organisational factor categories was extensively discussed. The emergent data was recorded, transcribed verbatim and subsequently analysed. The findings suggest that communication was critical to the prevalence of other factors, hence indicating its centrality to the effective management of SD implementation in HEIs. These findings will guide implementing agents in HEIs towards developing appropriate strategies for communicating SD implementation strategies

Endogenous Fibrinolysis : An Important Mediator of Thrombus Formation and Cardiovascular Risk

© 2015 BY THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF CARDIOLOGY FOUNDATION. PUBLISHED BY ELSEVIER INC.Most acute cardiovascular events are attributable to arterial thrombosis. Plaque rupture or erosion stimulates platelet activation, aggregation, and thrombosis, whilst simultaneously activating enzymatic processes that mediate endogenous fibrinolysis to physiologically maintain vessel patency. Interplay between these pathways determines clinical outcome. If proaggregatory factors predominate, the thrombus may propagate, leading to vessel occlusion. However, if balanced by a healthy fibrinolytic system, thrombosis may not occur or cause lasting occlusion. Despite abundant evidence for the fibrinolytic system regulating thrombosis, it has been overlooked compared with platelet reactivity, partly due to a lack of techniques to measure it. We evaluate evidence for endogenous fibrinolysis in arterial thrombosis and review techniques to assess it, including biomarkers and global assays, such as thromboelastography and the Global Thrombosis Test. Global assays, simultaneously assessing proaggregatory and fibrinolytic pathways, could play a role in risk stratification and in identifying impaired fibrinolysis as a potential target for pharmacological modulation.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Identity and Code Switching among Liberian Refugees in Oru Camp, Nigeria

In the course of interaction, bilinguals usually alternate between languages in order to project different faces. This study aims at examining the manifestations of identity among Liberian refugees in Oru camp, Nigeria, through code-switching. This is with a view to delineating the motivations behind the phenomenon coupled with the trajectories of the switches in relation to their indigenous languages, Yoruba (the host community language), Pidgin, and English. The study employed Ethno-linguistic Identity Theory as guide and adopted participant observation to elicit data from 20 adult respondents. The result revealed that code switching among the respondents was triggered by greetings, announcements, quotations, and proverbs. The trajectories of the switches were mainly from English to indigenous languages and Pidgin to indigenous languages. However, the respondents also manifested momentary identities with Yoruba through emblematic code switching. Liberian refugees in Oru camp were bilinguals who manifested multiple linguistic identities which indicated their psychological membership of multiple spheres and groups in the camp. However, the pattern or trajectory of their code switching revealed that they identified more with English and Pidgin, and less with their indigenous languages, and least with Yoruba, the language of the host community. In this way, they underlined their preference for modern and metropolitan identity over ethnic identity. The paper recommends that refugees should identify more with their indigenous languages and the host community language for reasons of language vitality, inclusion, and the benefits of diversity.&nbsp

Why Small Businesses and Nonprofits Need an IT Strategy

Technology has a tremendous impact on the potential for growth and success of any business or organization. Whether an organization already acquires elements of success, such as having great products and or service offering, good customer focus, and employees who are passionate about its development, the organization must integrate to its norms, an understanding of the full value of IT, in order to maintain the same level of success in this day and age. Without the use of technology, a business cannot function, let alone grow, meaning that technology is the future of business. Although businesses have been using technology for several decades, not all businesses appreciate or understand its impact enough to see it as the future of business. The opportunities with technology are supporting organizational goals and strategy, to creating a culture and structure for continuous improvement. Information Technology is a change agent, and change is the key to not going obsolete. It allows businesses to better tap into their creative senses and be innovative, which is highly needed in a world that is continuously evolving. The present and future generation will never live in a world that is not dominated by technology. Therefore, the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers who employ Millennials today must embrace or at least be open to technology and technology strategies if they are to keep Millennials engaged. Because when/if businesses can use technology as part of creating an environment for more positive experience at work, they will undoubtedly witness much higher levels of discretionary effort from their employees. Thus, activating competitive advantage and boosting growt

Information Literacy Self-Efficacy and Academic Resilience among final year Pre-Service School Librarians: Implications for Library Mentorship

The study examined the relationship that exists between academic resilience and information literacy self-efficacy among final year pre-service school librarians in a selected University in Nigeria. This study adopted the correlational survey research design. Through multistage sampling technique, 60 final year students of Library and Information science were selected. The questionnaires such as Academic Resilience Scale (ARS) and Information Literacy Self-Efficacy Scale (ILSES) were used to collect data. Linear regression was used to test the null hypotheses. The correlation coefficient of R=0.601 shows that there was a moderate positive association between academic resilience and information literacy self-efficacy. The regression of ANOVA of F(1,58) = 32.863, p = 0.00 indicated that there was a significant moderate relationship between academic resilience and information literacy self-efficacy of final year pre-service school librarians. The findings further indicated that final year pre-service librarians’ academic resilience is a significant predictor of their information literacy self-efficacy irrespective of gender and age

Culture and Identity in African and Caribbean Theatre

What connects Africa and the Caribbean is trans-Atlantic slavery which transported numerous sons and daughters of Africa to the plantations of the New World in the service of Western European capitalism. Because of this shared experience of trans-Atlantic slavery and European colonialism, issues of culture and identity are major concerns for African and Caribbean playwrights. Slavery and colonialism had involved systematic acts of cultural denigration, de-humanisation and loss of freedom, which left imprints on the collective psyches of the colonised Africans and enslaved peoples of African descent in the Caribbean. Both experiences brought intense cultural and psychic dislocations which still impact in various ways on the lives of Africans and peoples of African descent around the world. African and Caribbean playwrights try to help their peoples regain their dignities by affirming their cultures, histories and identities. The book focuses on the similarities and differences between Caribbean theatre and the theatre of sub-Saharan Africa, showing how identities and cultures are negotiated and affirmed in each case

SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' PREFERENCES BY GENDER FOR COUNSELING IN DELTA STATE, NIGERIA

The study focuses on senior secondary school students' choices for counseling in Delta State, Nigeria, broken down by gender. To direct the investigation, one null hypothesis was developed and three research questions were posed. The study used a descriptive survey research approach. Every senior secondary school student made up the study's population. Simple random sampling methods were used to choose 200 respondents. The questionnaire served as the data gathering tool. According to the study's findings, many students favor female counselors over male ones. Based on these findings, the study came to the conclusion that students prefer female counselors to male counselors. However, it is important to emphasize that this preference is limited to a few areas and cannot be used to excuse a counselor from doing their duties in the educational system. It was suggested, among other things, that school administrators should provide enough female counselors and make them available for counseling sessions in order to be able to lead, direct, and help the students in obtaining their best life objectives

Deviants and Outcasts: Power and Politics in Hausa Bori Performances

The jihad of Uthman dan Fodio in the early ninteenth century had by 1806 established Islamic cultural and religious hegemony over the Hausa territory of present-day Northern Nigeria. In the process, Islam had succeeded in pushing indigenous religious and cultural practices such as Bori to the margins or underground. However, while most of the other indigenous forms died or became inactive and ineffectual, Bori has managed to hold its own against the persecution and cultural war waged against it by Islam, mainly because the belief in the power and ability of the spirits to influence human life which is at the centre of Bori practice was never lost. In this article, Osita Okagbue argues that marginalization has made Bori attractive to groups and individuals in Hausa society who feel themselves similarly marginalized and oppressed for articulating alternative identities and viewpoints to those of the mainstream society. He also examines how the possession performances of the Bori cult enable members to subvert and occasionally to use moments of trance and possession to invert the power relationships between oppressed groups and their oppressors

Issues in Women\u27s Liberation Struggles in Contemporary Nigeria: A Study of Ezeigbo\u27s \u3cem\u3eHands that Crush Stone\u3c/em\u3e (2010)

This paper evaluates some contentious issues in women’s liberation struggles in Nigeria as recreated in Ezeigbo’s play, Hands that Crush Stone. The particularities of gender are neglected in the anti-colonial struggle for Nigerian independence, and women’s issues are subsumed within the nationalist literatures of cultural regeneration. With the influence of feminism, many Nigerian women embark on the identification of women’s personhood by controverting the representations of Nigerian women in male-centered works. African theatre, in particular, is very skeptical about the feminist ideology aimed at changing the status of women in society. Similarly, many people are suspicious of women’s liberation struggle and its consequent effect on the society. Hence feminism in Nigeria is rent with many contentious issues. Taking Marxist and feminist perspectives in the analysis of Hands that Crush Stone, the researcher explores some of the major issues in the character’s revolutionary gender-cum-class struggle for a pay rise. The proposition is that Hands that Crush Stone embodies most of the concerns in women’s struggle for survival in contemporary Nigeria