Information needs and access of Members of Vigilante in Adamawa State, North -East Nigeria

ABSTRACT The study investigated the Information needs and access of Members of Vigilante in Adamawa state, North-eastern Nigeria, one of the three states bedeviled by the Boko Haram insurgency. Quantitative research methodology and Cross-sectional survey design was applied for the study. The population of the study comprised of One Thousand Four Hundred Members (1400) drawn from Nineteen (19) local governments areas in the state. Krejcie and Morgan Table (1970) was used to draw (302) members as sample of the population, while Walpole’s (1982) formula for proportions was used in arriving at a sample for each stratum (i.e. each local government area). In collecting data, a total of Three Hundred and Two (302) copies of questionnaires were administered, and Two Hundred and Forty 240 copies (79.47%) were returned and found useful. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The outcome of the study revealed that the information needs of members were daily mainly work related and from informal sources, as there were no public libraries/information centers in 17 local governments’ areas of the state. The outcome of the research also revealed barriers to information access to include general lack of formal information infrastructure such as libraries/information centers, poor and unreliable informal information sources, as well as lack of training on information literacy skills for members of Vigilante. It is recommended that there is a need for those involved in vigilante information delivery to continuously examine and identify evolving information needs of members of vigilante in order to meet such needs. Government should resuscitate the dying public libraries in all the local government areas of Adamawa state to provide information services. Libraries should organize training on information literacy and other information use skills for members of vigilante, because if this is done, it will enhance and improve information access across communities in Adamawa state. Finally, information resources be repackaged in order to take care of challenges of proximity to sources of information, language barrier and other challenges faced by members of vigilante

Use of Smartphone for Access to Digital Information Resources and Services by University Academics: A Survey of Faculty Members of Modibbo Adama University, Yola, Nigeria

The study investigates the use of Smartphone for Digital Information Resources and Services Access by University Academics: A Survey of Faculty Members of Modibbo Adama University, Yola Nigeria. The study was guided by six objectives, six research questions and three hypothesises were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted survey research method. Questionnaire was used as the method of data collection. The population for this study is 648 academics. The study adopted simple random sampling techniques. The collected data was analysed by inferential statistics, and hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance, the study among others revealed that 16.250% mostly used Android phones types of smartphone device mostly used by academics in accessing information resources and services. It revealed that respondents agreed to the items raised on the reasons for using various applications of smartphones by the academics to access information resources and services. It was also revealed that the respondents agreed to the items raised on the challenges faced by academics in accessing information resources and services. The study concludes among others that most of the academics used android phone in accessing the information and digital services also satisfied to the extent with the services. The study recommends among others that the library management should strive and make all information resources and services digitalized in order to make them accessible through digital devices, and management should provide internet with enough bandwidth to curtail the challenges faced by the academics in accessing information resources and service

Assessing the Effectiveness of Adhoc-Network and Electronic Government in Abuja, Nigeria

E-Government is the use of information and communication Technologies (ICT) such as internet, smart phones,telecommunication, mobile company among others to interact between government and the citizens in running the affairs of the country such as decision making etc. The impact and potential of ICTs have not been fully exploited in the Nigerian context,leaving government in a weak position to formulate policy comprehensively and implement plans effectively. In addition to the implementation of e-government in some part of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Nigeria Abuja, but its effectiveness is not impressive. The citizens connection to the government is limited it can be improved more easily using electronic means of communication, A reduction in corruption cases as accountability and transparency can also be increased, Equal opportunity will be given to all to access information irrespective of the person’s physical location or disability and the elimination of the bureaucracy experienced in government offices. This research work is aimed at assessing the effectiveness of e-government in federal capital territory of Nigeria Abuja using Seoul Metropolitan Government as a yard stick for measuring the effectiveness.Questionnaire was used as a primary method of data collection, internet and library as secondary data. The data obtained from the questionnaire has been analyzed using frequency table and percentage. The findings of this work shows that 41.91% of the respondents agree e-government initiatives have decreased civil servants corruption in Abuja, 46.81% of the respondents agree that E-government services has increased citizens trust in Abuja, 58.11% of the respondents believe that E-government initiative have increased the accessibility to the government in Abuja however 37.11% agree that Lack of Information Technology (IT) infrastructure is the major problem affecting E-government in Abuja

PREDICTION OF SOIL BEARING CAPACITY USING SOFT COMPUTING TECHNIQUES

The nature and manner in which structures are collapsing in Nigeria are alarming. It creates a room in which structural engineers, the building industry, government, estate developers, building consultants and other relevant stakeholders in the department building industry ask many questions about how and what is behind the sudden collapse of structures. Therefore, this research aimed to predict the ultimate bearing capacity of the square, strip and circular footing from shearing strength parameters using ANN and ANFIS. This paper, 200 data sets were used to develop the model; 75% were used for training and 25% for testing the model. ANN and ANFIS learning algorithms were employed in developing the models under various foundation types. Eventually, Various error measures, such as coefficient of determination (R2), root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and correlation coefficient (R), were employed to compare the efficiency of the models. The performance comparison findings indicated that the soft-computing system is an efficient instrument for risk reduction in soil engineering projects. The models were validated using external data and the correlation prediction capacity of the models where ANN-STRIP (89%), ANN-SQUARE (83%), ANN-CIRCULAR (89%), ANFIS-STRIP (86%), ANFIS-SQUARE (79%) and ANFIS-CIRCULAR (96%). All the models have shown a quite good and reliable prediction capacity, with ANFIS-CIRCULAR having 96% prediction accuracy of soil bearing capacity

Prediction of Compressive Strength in High Strength Concrete with Steel Fiber Addition using Support Vector Machine Algorithm

In this study, a support vector machine model available in Weka Algorithms, was utilized to test the predictive capacity of compressive strength in high performance concrete (HSC) with steel fiber addition. To test the performance of the algorithm, a certain percentage were allocated for training of the algorithm, and the rest for test. This was done from 60-40 percent split up to 90-10 percent split for training and testing respectively. Results generated from the model include mean absolute error, root mean squared error, and relative absolute error for each model. It was observed that there was a good correlation between the actual and predicted values, and that errors were relatively low. Utilization of free algorithms in civil engineering construction will enhance the optimization of concrete mixtures. &nbsp

Divlji sisavci u zatočeništvu kao potencijalni rezervoari invazija krvnim parazitima i ektoparazitima u čovjeka i domaćih životinja u sušnim područjima Sjeveroistočne Nigerije.

Haematological examination of 114 captive wild animals belonging to 3 groups revealed blood infection with one or more haemo or ecto-parasites per animal. The carnivores harboured infections with mainly Babesia canis, Babesia felis, and Trypanosoma brucei. Those encountered among the Artiodactyla were mainly Trypanosoma vivax, Trypanosoma congolense and Anaplasma marginale. No haemoparasites were encountered in the Proboscidae. On the other hand, the primates had mainly Plasmodium schizonts and gametocytes. Parasitaemia due to trypanosomosis in the three animal groups were significantly (P<0.05) low and ranged between 2.5×103 to 4.5×103. Similarly, the percentages of RBC parasitized by Babesia, Anaplasma, Theileria and Haemobartonella as well as the number of monocytes parasitized by Ehrlichia, ranged from the lowest value of 6% in the pygmy hippopotamus (Choriopsis liberiansis) due to Anaplasma marginale to the highest value in the Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) which had 70% of its RBC parasitized with Babesia canis. The cheetah in question was imported from East Africa to Maiduguri Zoological Garden but later died as a result of the babesiosis before commencement of treatment during the period. Various species of ticks and large scores of haematophagus mechanical arthropod vectors were incriminated in the transmission processes. The significance of the results and potential risks to humans and domestic stock in the area is discussed.Pretragom krvnih razmazaka 114 divljih sisavaca držanih u zatočeništvu, svrstanih u tri skupine, dokazana je infekcija jednom ili više vrsta parazita po životinji. U mesoždera su dokazane vrste Babesia canis, Babesia felis i Trypanosoma brucei. U Artiodactyla, najčešće su dokazane praživotinje Trypanosoma vivax, Trypanosoma congolense i Anaplasma marginale. U surlaša nisu dokazani krvni paraziti. U primata su uglavnom dokazani shizonti i gametocite roda Plasmodium. Parazitemija uzrokovana tripanosomama bila je u sve tri skupine značajno niska (P<0,05) i kretala se između 2,5×103 do 4,5×103. Postotak eritrocita invadiranih protozoima Babesia, Anaplasma, Theileria i Haemobartonella kao i broj monocita u kojima su dokazane erlihije kretao se od najnižih vrijednosti (6%) u pigmejskoga vodenoga konja (Choriopsis liberiansis) u kojega je utvrđena Anaplasma marginale do najviših vrijednosti u geparda (Acinonyx jubatus) u kojega je čak 70% eritrocita bilo invadirano vrstom Babesia canis. Gepard je bio uvezen iz istočne Afrike u Zoološki vrt u Maiduguriju gdje je i uginuo od babezioze prije započetog liječenja. Velika učestalost krvnih parazita povezuje se s velikom učestalošću broja krpelja i hematofagnih člankonožaca. Rezultati su raspravljeni u kontekstu moguće opasnosti za zdravlje životinja i ljudi

Review of Groundwater Potentials and Groundwater Hydrochemistry of Semi-arid Hadejia-Yobe Basin, North-eastern Nigeria

Understanding the hydrochemical and hydrogeological physiognomies ofsubsurface water in a semi-arid region is important for the effective management of water resources. This paper presents a thorough review of thehydrogeology and hydrochemistry of the Hadejia-Yobe basin. The hydrochemical and hydrogeological configurations as reviewed indicated that the Chad Formation is the prolific aquifer in the basin. Boreholes piercing theGundumi formation have a depth ranging from 20-85 meters. The hydrochemical composition of groundwater revealed water of excellent quality,as all the studied parameters were found to have concentrations withinWHO and Nigeria’s standard for drinking water quality. However, furtherstudies are required for further evaluation of water quality index, heavy metal pollution index, and irrigation water quality. Also, geochemical, andstable isotope analysis is required for understanding the provenance of salinity and hydrogeochemical controls on groundwater in the basin