Statistical Analysis of the Impact of Women in National Development

Women have been left out in the past national development plans, even their contributions to Gross National Product (GNP) of the nation have been treated as insignificant. The situation is further worsened by illiteracy, poverty, pest, and diseases, fire and other natural disasters. Many bodies had championed the course of the rural women in recent times notable among which are Better life for Rural Women (BLRW), Family Support Programme (FSP), Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP), and National Council for Women Society, empower and better the lots of women. Without doubt this research has through its discovery supported the fact that women are contributing immensely to national economic development through divers’ roles they play in their rest. These with other reasons had falsified the notion that women are subordinate to men in rural and national development. Finally, it is suggested in the study that greater access to education, credit land and technology will go a long way to improve women’s lots in the nation and in their contribution to national development, particularly in the local government to women in the rural communities of the country. Keywords: Development, Women, Econom

Computer Based Test using Speech Recognition System

Speech recognition system is a system that can converts audio signals into machine-readable format to provide interaction with the system. In this paper the speech recognition system is applied within the E –Learning system.  A headset microphone is interfaced to the computer system for speech production, a speech engine to help analyze each spoken text as programmed in the source code using XML format as the back end for stored text. This technique process data capturing more promptly than the existing process by keyboards or mouse, and can be used in working environment where these devices cannot be used and also for the disable learners that cannot use their hands or communicate through textual medium. Speech Recognition System is a developing technology and its application in this context is done within the Computer-Based Test as a pilot study.  The speech SDK (Software Development Kits) used has an inbuilt speech recognition engine and inbuilt simulator, the engine provides the speech recognizer that is able to recognize the user’s speech and integrate it with the inbuilt simulator. Keywords: Speech Recognition System, Computer Based Test, E-Learning Syste

Nitrogen and weed management in transplanted tomato in the Nigerian forest-savanna transition zone

Weed infestation and inherent low soil fertility are among primary reasons for low yields of tomato in Nigeria. Field trials were carried out during the wet season of 2015 and 2016 to evaluate yield response of tomato to nitrogen (N) application and weed control methods in the forest-savanna transition zone of Abeokuta, Nigeria. Positive relationship exists between growth of weed species and increase in N application. Across the years of study, increase in N up to 90 kg/ha increased weed density by 11–25%, however, the increased N gave the transplanted tomato competitive advantage and thus enhanced weed smothering. Pre-transplant application of butachlor (50% w/v) or probaben® (metolachlor 20% w/v+prometryn 20% w/v) each at 2.0 kg a.i/ha followed by supplementary hoe weeding at 6 weeks after transplanting (WAT) significantly reduced weed density by at least 15% and increased fruit yield of tomato by at least 32%, compared to use of the pre-transplant herbicides alone, across both years of study. The greatest tomato fruit yield of 12.2 t/ha was obtained with pre-transplant application of butachlor at 2.0 kg a.i/ha followed by supplementary hoe weeding at 6 WAT, averaged for both years. In general, this study suggests that increased application of N up to 90 kg/ha, and complementary weed control by pre-transplant herbicide and hoe weeding at 6 WAT would improve yield of tomato in the forestsavanna transition zone of Nigeria

An Investigation of Users’ Acceptance and Satisfaction of E-Banking System as a Panacea towards a Cashless Economy in Nigeria

The benefits of e-banking have been established as being numerous and its success has been argued by many researchers to depend partly on the quality of the banking services but more especially on customer preferences and satisfaction. Surprisingly, as numerous as these e-banking benefits are, very long queues could still be seen in many Nigerian banks for the consumption of the traditional banking services of fund transfer, cash deposits and cash withdrawals. However, to prove the success of e- banking in Nigeria, users’ acceptance and satisfaction of the system need to be validated. Many research works had been conducted using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), an information system theory that models how users come to accept and use a technology, to pzredict and explain users’ acceptance of e-banking. TAM poses two theoretical constructs; perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) as fundamental determinants of user’s acceptance of an information system. This research work examines the factors that may influence users’ acceptance and satisfaction of e- banking in Nigeria by adding the impact of perceived credibility (PC) and trust to the TAM constructs (PU and PEOU) with four other external variables (convenience, quality of technology, service quality and system accessibility) in extending its validity on examining user’s acceptance and satisfaction of e-banking system in Nigeria as a panacea towards operating a cashless economy. The result of the hypothesis testing using Pearson chi square is consistent with previous studies which showed that there is a significant relationship in the predicted direction on intention to use information system (IS)

Design, Fabrication and Performance Evaluation of a Domestic Dish Washing Machine

Plate washing is a daily activity across the globe which involves a lot of energy to accomplish manually or mechanically. The objective of this work is to design and fabricate a dish washing machine that is efficient and easy to operate. Stainless steel and mild steel was used for the construction of the machine considering their availability, cost reduction and corrosion resistance. The motor used a power of 0.75hp (559.5 W), voltage of 240V and a speed of rotation of “1200 r.p.m” which was reduced to “100 r.p.m” using a reduction gear of velocity ratio (V.R) “12:1”, the shaft torque being “53.4 N-m”. The plates were washed and rinsed in a separate basin using a liquid detergent and clean water following appropriate measure per cycle. Detailed design drawings of all the machine parts were drawn using AutoCAD. The performance analysis of the machine shows that the number of plates washed and the time taken were 20 plates per minute (1min), 5 plates per minute for the machine and manual operation respectively. The capacity of the machine is 20 plates per minute (1880 per hour). The machine washes plates without breakages.Keywords: Washing machine; motor; transformer; gear, plates; detergen

Accessibility and Usage of Scholarly Information Sources by Faculty Members and Postgraduate Students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

This study was aimed at developing an understanding of the scholarly information sources and services that faculty members and postgraduate students in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria accessed and used to support their research, teaching and learning. Three research questions and one hypothesis were formulated and tested with respect to types of Scholarly Information Sources (SIS) available, accessed and used by the Faculty Members (FM) and Postgraduate (PG) Students of Ahmadu Bello University, (A.B.U.), Zaria, Nigeria, in this study. A number of 868 samples comprising 487 FM and 381 PG students were drawn from the population and used as sample size for this study. The data collected, through questionnaire and observations, were analyzed using frequency distribution tables and percentages, while the hypothesis was tested using T-test for independent samples. The results show that academic/research libraries and the internet is the major SIS accessed by the FM and PG students in A.B.U., Zaria. In addition, printed matters as well as manuscripts were the most accessed and utilized Scholarly Information Sources in A.B.U., Zaria. Moreover, there is significant difference between the FM and PG students in their uses of Scholarly Information Sources. This study therefore concludes that internet has revolutionized the process by which information is being packaged, processed, stored and disseminated, as well as how users seek and access information, these notwithstanding, the academic and the research library is still very relevant to faculty members and PG students’ scholarly activities. Therefore, the universities, through their library systems, need to explore the advantages and opportunities offered by the application of Information and communication Technology (ICTs) in scholarly information delivery

Automated classification of African embroidery patterns using cellular learning automata and support vector machines

Embroidery is the art that is majorly practised in Nigeria, which requires creativity and skills. However, differentiating between two standard embroidery patterns pose challenges to wearers of the patterns. This study developed a classification system to improve the embroiderer to user relationship. The specific characteristics are used as feature sets to classify two common African embroidery patterns (handmade and tinko) are shape, brightness, thickness and colour. The system developed and simulated in MATLAB 2016a environment employed Cellular Learning Automata (CLA) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) as its classifier. The classification performance of the proposed system was evaluated using precision, recall, and accuracy. The system obtained an average precision of 0.93, average recall of 0.81, and average accuracy of 0.97 in classifying the handmade and tinko embroidery patterns considered in this study. This study also presented an experimental result of three validation models for training and testing the dataset used in this study. The model developed an improved and refined embroiderer for eliminating stress related to the manual pattern identification process

Characteristics and Nature of Academic Staff’s User Experiences in Electronic Library Database Utilisation

Abstract Introduction. The use of electronic library databases (e-library databases) by academic staff is accepted globally as contributing immensely-to academic staff research work. However, based on one of the researchers’ experiences as a Subject Librarian as well as context-specific issues that arose from the existing literature, e-library databases are underutilised by academic staff at the University of Jos and similar institutions in North-Central Nigeria. Many previous studies on the use of e-library databases by academic staff in Nigerian universities were centred on the quantitative survey methodology, which lack in-depth perspectives of academics’ experiences. Thus, additional qualitative insights are necessary. Hence, this study aimed to improve our understanding of the personal/individual experiences affecting academic staff e-library database utilisation in universities in North-Central Nigeria, through ethnographic research. Method. The stratified sampling method was used in selecting participants. The researcher employed observation and semi-structured interviews to collect data from 44 academic staff selected from 22 faculties of the Universities and one system librarian from each of the university libraries. A constant comparative approach was used in the analysis of data. Results. The results revealed negative/unsatisfying experiences and a lack of interest in using e-library databases affected academics’ use of the e-library databases. The researcher discovered that online library database use and technology are generally less common to older academics but appear to be more familiar amongst the younger ones. Conclusion. Therefore, the study recommended that Academic Subject Librarians have to consider online library database design strategies to shore up the use rates. The university should also prioritise behavioural change

To investigate the influencing factors for sustainable packaging in a multinational SME supply chain

Sustainability has become a buzzword that occurs everywhere in this global economy. Governments continue to lay emphasis on its importance by steering policies favourably in that direction. Organisations, both public and private, are becoming more aware of the economic, social and environmental advantages it brings them in the global landscape in which they operate. Academic institutions have not been left behind, on the evidence of the volume of research in this area.The aim of this research has been to investigate the barriers and enablers to sustainable packaging within an international, closed loop supply chain of Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the food Industry. It is important to mention that two-thirds of all packaging is used in the food industry, and the close relationship between the food sector and packaging explains the focus of this research on the food sector.Whilst there has been research into sustainability or sustainable development, emphasis has always been on Multinational Enterprises (MNE). The role of Small- to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the global economy is significant, according to the statistics available. SMEs represent more than 99% and 80% of enterprises in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, respectively, and provide over 75 million jobs in the European Union. Furthermore, 90% of global businesses are SMEs. The research is therefore focused on Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs).The use of a qualitative approach for the study was justified by the focus on gaining a profound understanding of the barriers and enablers for sustainable packaging, for SMEs, in the real world. A case study strategy was also deemed to be appropriate because of the importance of contemporary events, over which the researcher has no control. In addition, the use of interviews, direct observation and the examination of documents as methods of data gathering was also justified in as much as the use of a number of approaches supported data triangulation, which thus strengthened the research.The intention of this research was to highlight the issues SMEs face when embarking on a sustainable packaging journey. This research has therefore contributed to the existing body of knowledge by investigating the various barriers that this type of organisation faces, and why. Existing barriers identified within the literature, as detailed in Chapter 2, and new findings detailed in Chapter 5, concerning the system, corruption and culture, make a contribution to the existing body of knowledge