The Use of Internet Facilities in Teaching and Research by Academic Staff of School of Management and Information Technology, Modibbo Adama University of Technology Yola

The study investigates the use of internet facilities by the academic staff of School of Management and Information Technology (SMIT) in Modibbo Adama University of Technology (MAUTECH), Yola. Literatures have been reviewed based on the objectives of the study. The findings of the study will be used to improve teaching and research not only in SMIT but to the entire university and the society at large. The study use the survey research design, the population of the study consist of all the 62 academic staff of SMIT comprising of the Departments of Accountancy, Economics, Information Technology, Library and Information Science and Management Technology. Questionnaire was used to collect data. The data collected have been analyzed through descriptive statistics using frequency table and percentage. The study revealed that the University provide staff of the University with Internet access at a fee and also academic staff of SMIT use Google, Yahoo and free database search engines for their teaching and research. Recommendation for the university management to provide free Internet access to the university community to encourage and enhance teaching and research was made

Investigating the effect of High Altitude Platform Positioning on Latency and Coverage of 4G Cellular Systems

Wireless communication technologies are rapidly being adopted and developed by countries all over the world as a strategy for sustaining a digital economy. This has proven very useful for economic recovery from the crises brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic of the year 2020. The latency and coverage area of a wireless network are two major areas that are always seeking improvement. The High Altitude Platform communication technology can provide improvement in speed and coverage area for 4G cellular systems. This work investigated the effect of positioning High Altitude Platforms on the latency and coverage of 4G cellular Systems. A quantitative approach was used in the methodology of this paper. A HAP model showing a single platform flying in a circular trajectory over Base Transceiver Stations BTSs and serving as a relay mobile station was presented. A detailed simulation algorithm for the HAP and results for the simulation were given. Results showed that using the HAP as a relay mobile station in a network can give a latency reduction of up to 58.9%.  Also, the altitude of the HAP directly affects the angle of reception which was found to improve the coverage

A Game-Theoretic Approach to Strategic Resource Allocation Mechanisms in Edge and Fog Computing

With the rapid growth of Internet of Things (IoT), cloud-centric application management raises questions related to quality of service for real-time applications. Fog and edge computing (FEC) provide a complement to the cloud by filling the gap between cloud and IoT. Resource management on multiple resources from distributed and administrative FEC nodes is a key challenge to ensure the quality of end-user’s experience. To improve resource utilisation and system performance, researchers have been proposed many fair allocation mechanisms for resource management. Dominant Resource Fairness (DRF), a resource allocation policy for multiple resource types, meets most of the required fair allocation characteristics. However, DRF is suitable for centralised resource allocation without considering the effects (or feedbacks) of large-scale distributed environments like multi-controller software defined networking (SDN). Nash bargaining from micro-economic theory or competitive equilibrium equal incomes (CEEI) are well suited to solving dynamic optimisation problems proposing to ‘proportionately’ share resources among distributed participants. Although CEEI’s decentralised policy guarantees load balancing for performance isolation, they are not faultproof for computation offloading. The thesis aims to propose a hybrid and fair allocation mechanism for rejuvenation of decentralised SDN controller deployment. We apply multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) with robustness against adversarial controllers to enable efficient priority scheduling for FEC. Motivated by software cybernetics and homeostasis, weighted DRF is generalised by applying the principles of feedback (positive or/and negative network effects) in reverse game theory (GT) to design hybrid scheduling schemes for joint multi-resource and multitask offloading/forwarding in FEC environments. In the first piece of study, monotonic scheduling for joint offloading at the federated edge is addressed by proposing truthful mechanism (algorithmic) to neutralise harmful negative and positive distributive bargain externalities respectively. The IP-DRF scheme is a MARL approach applying partition form game (PFG) to guarantee second-best Pareto optimality viii | P a g e (SBPO) in allocation of multi-resources from deterministic policy in both population and resource non-monotonicity settings. In the second study, we propose DFog-DRF scheme to address truthful fog scheduling with bottleneck fairness in fault-probable wireless hierarchical networks by applying constrained coalition formation (CCF) games to implement MARL. The multi-objective optimisation problem for fog throughput maximisation is solved via a constraint dimensionality reduction methodology using fairness constraints for efficient gateway and low-level controller’s placement. For evaluation, we develop an agent-based framework to implement fair allocation policies in distributed data centre environments. In empirical results, the deterministic policy of IP-DRF scheme provides SBPO and reduces the average execution and turnaround time by 19% and 11.52% as compared to the Nash bargaining or CEEI deterministic policy for 57,445 cloudlets in population non-monotonic settings. The processing cost of tasks shows significant improvement (6.89% and 9.03% for fixed and variable pricing) for the resource non-monotonic setting - using 38,000 cloudlets. The DFog-DRF scheme when benchmarked against asset fair (MIP) policy shows superior performance (less than 1% in time complexity) for up to 30 FEC nodes. Furthermore, empirical results using 210 mobiles and 420 applications prove the efficacy of our hybrid scheduling scheme for hierarchical clustering considering latency and network usage for throughput maximisation.Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi (Tetfund, Nigeria

A Self-Tuning procedure for resource management in InterCloud Computing

Beijing Key Laboratory on Integration and Analysis of Large-scale Stream Data, College of Computer Science, North China University of Technology, Beijing, China The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.InterCloud Computing is a new cloud paradigm designed to guarantee service quality or performance and availability of on-demand resources. InterCloud enables cloud interoperability by promoting the interworking of cloud systems from different cloud providers using standard interfacing. Resource management in InterCloud, considered as an important functional requirement, has not attracted commensurate research attention. The focus of this paper is to propose a Software Cybernetic approach, in the form of an adaptive control framework, for efficient management of shared resources in peer-to-peer InterCloud computing. This research effort adopts cooperative game theory to model resource management in InterCloud. The space of cooperative arrangements (resource sharing) between the participant cloud systems is presented by using Integer Partitioning to characterise the worst case communication complexity in peer to peer InterCloud. Essentially, this paper presents an Integer partition based anytime algorithm as an optimal cost solution to the bi-objective optimisation problem in resource management, anchored principally on practical trade-off between the desired performance (quality of service) and communication complexity of collaborating resource clouds

Modern software cybernetics: New trends

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Software cybernetics research is to apply a variety of techniques from cybernetics research to software engineering research. For more than fifteen years since 2001, there has been a dramatic increase in work relating to software cybernetics. From cybernetics viewpoint, the work is mainly on the first-order level, namely, the software under observation and control. Beyond the first-order cybernetics, the software, developers/users, and running environments influence each other and thus create feedback to form more complicated systems. We classify software cybernetics as Software Cybernetics I based on the first-order cybernetics, and as Software Cybernetics II based on the higher order cybernetics. This paper provides a review of the literature on software cybernetics, particularly focusing on the transition from Software Cybernetics I to Software Cybernetics II. The results of the survey indicate that some new research areas such as Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, cyber-physical systems, and even creative computing are related to Software Cybernetics II. The paper identifies the relationships between the techniques of Software Cybernetics II applied and the new research areas to which they have been applied, formulates research problems and challenges of software cybernetics with the application of principles of Phase II of software cybernetics; identifies and highlights new research trends of software cybernetic for further research

The Effects of Environmental Consciousness in Public Healthcare Institutions and Community Awareness in Mokwa Local Government Area, Niger State, Nigeria

The effects of environmental consciousness in public healthcare institutions and the community awareness of the impacts were investigated. Environmental Pollution resulting from healthcare operations are a major problem in Mokwa Local Government Area LGA as the hospital material output goes directly to the environment without check. Similar situation has been reported in developing world. The objective is to find the opportunity for healthcare sector to improve on the overall environmental performance. Collated data was analyzed using simple percentage analysis. Results of the findings shows that the management of the healthcare institutions investigated have not taken into cognizance the environmental implication of the material input and output, lack effective environmental management system and poor environmental condition within and the environs. It is recommended that effective environmental management system be put in place. Also, government dedication, and collective responsibility of relevant stakeholders toward managing the environmental aspects and impacts of the health care institutions in the study area are critical for improvement. These will guarantee cleaner and healthier environment for all

Channel Propagation Characteristics on the Performance of 4G Cellular Systems from High Altitude Platforms (HAPs)

In this paper, we investigated the effect of different channel propagation characteristics on the performance of 4G systems from high altitude platforms (HAPs). The use of High-Altitude Platforms for communication purpose in the past focused mostly on the assumption that the platform is quasi stationary. The technical limitation of the assumption was that of ensuring stability in the positioning of the platform in space. The use of antenna steering and other approaches were proposed as a solution to the said problem. In this paper, we proposed a channel model which account for the motion of the platform. This was done by investigating the effect of Doppler shift on the carrier frequency as the signals propagate between the transmitter and receiver while the High-Altitude Platform is in motion. The basic free space model was used and subjected to the frequency variation caused by the continuous random shift due to the motion of the HAPs. The trajectory path greatly affects the system performance. A trajectory of 30km, 100km and 500km radii were simulated. An acute elevation angle was used in the simulation. The proposed model was also compared to two other channel models to illustrate its performance. The results show that the proposed model behave similar to the existing models except at base station ID 35 and 45 where the highest deviation of 20dBm was observed. Other stations that deviated were less than 2dBm

Ethyl-acetate and aqueous fractions of Moringa oleifera Lam (Moringaceae) leaf extract possess antidepressant activity in mice

Background: Depression is one of most costly psychiatric illnesses all over the world that afflicts roughly 21% of the world population. Moringa oleifera has been used in traditional folk medicine for treating neurologic disorders and plays a key role in memory, mood elevation, response to stimulus such as stress and pleasure which are common in depression. Crude ethanol leaf extract of Moringa oleifera has been scientifically evaluated to have antidepressant activity. Objective: This work evaluated the antidepressant activities of ethyl-acetate and aqueous fractions of Moringa oleifera ethanol leaf extract in mice. Methodology: Ethanol leaf extract of Moringa oleifera was partitioned with ethyl-acetate and water to obtain two fractions. Preliminary phytochemical screening and acute toxicity studies were carried out on both fractions. Antidepressant activity of both fractions at doses of 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg was evaluated using tail suspension (TST), forced swim (FST), and locomotor activity tests in mice. Results: Glycosides, flavonoids, tannins, saponins and terpenoids were detected in both fractions, while the interperitoneal median lethal dose was estimated to be 1,131.4 mg/kg in mice for the two fractions. The ethyl-acetate and aqueous fractions of Moringa oleifera leaf extract significantly (p<0.05) reduced the immobility time of mice compared to the normal saline treated group in the tail suspension test. In the forced swim test, ethyl-acetate fraction (EF) at the tested doses significantly (p<0.05) reduced the immobility time compared to the normal saline treated group, while the aqueous fraction (AF) at 200 and 400 mg/kg doses produced a significant (p<0.05) decrease in the immobility time. In the open field test (locomotor activity test), both fractions did not produce statistically significant difference in the mean number of squares crossed by mice compared to control. Conclusion: This study shows that ethyl-acetate and aqueous fractions of Moringa oleifera ethanol leaf extract possess antidepressant activity without altering motor activity in mice tail suspension and forced swim tests, buttressing the potential of Moringa oleifera in the management of depression in the nearest future. Keywords: Antidepressant, tail suspension, forced swim, Open field, Moringa oleifera

Prevalence of extended spectrum β-lactamases (esbls) among enterobacteriaceae in murtala mohammed specialist hospital, Kano, Nigeria

Confirmed variants of enterobacteriaceae isolated from 143 patients that attended Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital Kano, were screened for extended spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) production using Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) breakpoint. Suspected ESBLs producers were subjected to confirmation using Disc Replacement Method (DRM). Standard discs of augmentin {AMC 30μg (Oxoid, England)}, ceftriaxone {AUF 30μg (Oxoid, England)} and ceftazidime {RP 30μg (Oxoid, England)} were used in the screening. Of the 143 isolates screened, 114 (79.72%) were Gram negative isolates belonging to the family enterobacteriaceae. Among the enterobacteriaceae isolates screened, the results of CLSI breakpoint test showed that 76 (66.7%) were ESBLs producers viz: Citrobacter spp. (3), Enterobacter spp. (2), E. coli (28), Klebsiella spp. (18), Morganella morganii (7), Proteus spp. (13), Salmonella spp. (1), Serratia spp. (1), Shigella spp. (2) and Yersinia spp (1). On subjecting the CLSI positive isolates to DRM, only 47 (41.2%) were confirmed ESBLs producers. These include; Citrobacter spp. (1), E. coli (20), Klebsiella spp. (12), Morganella morganii (4), Proteus spp. (8), Salmonella spp. (1) and Shigella spp. (1). ESBLs occur at an alarming rate among enterobacteriaceae isolates in Kano which calls for government intervention in the healthcare setting

A Game-Theoretic Based QoS-Aware Capacity Management for Real-Time EdgeIoT Applications

More and more real-time IoT applications such as smart cities or autonomous vehicles require big data analytics with reduced latencies. However, data streams produced from distributed sensing devices may not suffice to be processed traditionally in the remote cloud due to: (i) longer Wide Area Network (WAN) latencies and (ii) limited resources held by a single Cloud. To solve this problem, a novel Software-Defined Network (SDN) based InterCloud architecture is presented for mobile edge computing environments, known as EdgeIoT. An adaptive resource capacity management approach is proposed to employ a policy-based QoS control framework using principles in coalition games with externalities. To optimise resource capacity policy, the proposed QoS management technique solves, adaptively, a lexicographic ordering bi-criteria Coalition Structure Generation (CSG) problem. It is an onerous task to guarantee in a deterministic way that a real-time EdgeIoT application satisfies low latency requirement specified in Service Level Agreements (SLA). CloudSim 4.0 toolkit is used to simulate an SDN-based InterCloud scenario, and the empirical results suggest that the proposed approach can adapt, from an operational perspective, to ensure low latency QoS for real-time EdgeIoT application instances