THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Lately, the built environment has been witnessing a lot of hazards ranging from collapsed buildings and bridges, floods and typhoons, droughts and landslides, as well as fire, tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes. Others are hazards launched through technology such as bio-terrorism and cyber-terrorism. Thus, necessity is place on Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry to prevent the "sick building" syndrome and make the built environment safe, secure, and healthy for mankind. This paper attempts to examine the immediate and remote causes of fail and sick buildings with a view to proffering solutions through the use of technology. Furthermore, the paper presents the application of the available technologies such as e-construction, Geographical Information System (GIS), Computer Aided Design (CAD) and the Global Positioning System (CPS) to the built environment. An integrated design environment within the AEC industry is proposed to allow for modeling, designing, analyzing, and visualizing structures. Thus, the behaviour of structures can be modeled through "virtual reality", leading to the creation of "smart buildings", which are design concepts for this generation

Impact of Mobile and Wireless Technology on Healthcare Delivery services

Modern healthcare delivery services embrace the use of leading edge technologies and new scientific discoveries to enable better cures for diseases and better means to enable early detection of most life-threatening diseases. The healthcare industry is finding itself in a state of turbulence and flux. The major innovations lie with the use of information technologies and particularly, the adoption of mobile and wireless applications in healthcare delivery [1]. Wireless devices are becoming increasingly popular across the healthcare field, enabling caregivers to review patient records and test results, enter diagnosis information during patient visits and consult drug formularies, all without the need for a wired network connection [2]. A pioneering medical-grade, wireless infrastructure supports complete mobility throughout the full continuum of healthcare delivery. It facilitates the accurate collection and the immediate dissemination of patient information to physicians and other healthcare care professionals at the time of clinical decision-making, thereby ensuring timely, safe, and effective patient care. This paper investigates the wireless technologies that can be used for medical applications, and the effectiveness of such wireless solutions in a healthcare environment. It discusses challenges encountered; and concludes by providing recommendations on policies and standards for the use of such technologies within hospitals

Interoperability of Information Systems and Heterogenous Databases Using XML

Interoperabilily of information systerrrs is the most critical issue facing businesse! that need to access information from multiple idormution systems on tlifferent environments ancl diverse platforms. Interoperability has been a basic requirement for the modern information systems in a competitive and volatile business environment, particularly with the advent of distributed network system and the growing relevance of inter-network communications. Our objective in tltis paper is to develop a comprehensiveframework tofacilitate interoperability smong distributed and heterogeneous information systems and to develop prototype software to validate tlte application of XML in interoperability of infurmation systems and databases

An Empirical Investigation of the Level of Users’ Acceptance of E-Banking in Nigeria

Nigeria was depicted to be the fastest growing telecommunications nation in African. Presently, all members of the Nigeria banking industry have engaged the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a platform for effective and efficient means of conducting financial transactions. This paper focuses on determining the level of users’ acceptance of the electronic banking services and investigating the factors that determine users’ behavioral intentions to use electronic banking systems in Nigeria. The survey instrument employed involved design and administration of a total of 500 survey questionnaires within the Lagos metropolis and its environs. An extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was employed as a conceptual framework to investigate the factors that influence users’ acceptance and intention to use electronic banking. To test the model, data was collected from 292 customers from various commercial banks in Nigeria. The model measured the impact of Perceived Credibility (PC), Computer Self-Efficacy (CSE), Perceived Usefulness (PU), and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) on customer attitude and customer attitude on customer adaptation. The result of this research shows that ATM still remains the most widely used form e-Banking service. Banks’ customers who are active users of e-Banking system use it because it is convenient, easy to use, time saving and appropriate for their transaction needs. Also the network security and the security of the system in terms of privacy are the major concerns of the users and constitute hindrance to intending users

TOWARDS A FUTURISTIC EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Majority of the nations of the world were colonized and went through wars at various times, but had turned around their fortunes through economic and educational reforms. In Nigeria however, there had been series of educational reforms from: 7/6-5-4 to 6-3-3-4 and now 9-3-4 system. Similarly, the recent reform in the higher education sector which has resulted into the conversion of the nation’s higher technical educational institutions to degree awarding universities, which arose largely from the disparity between the graduates of the two institutions in the labor market and the fallen standard of education. This paper presents a critical review of the various educational reforms with a view to designing a viable educational model based on the examples of some developed and developing nations. It attempts to proffer solutions to some of the existing problems

The Prospects of M-Voting Implementation in Nigeria

Since independence, an average of 50% of registered voters participates in voting [1]. Similarly, an increasing rate of apathy was observed between the electorate and the elect, which was not unconnected with lack of transparency, accountability, and probity on the part of government [2]. Thus the electorate did not see the need to subject itself to any stress. Consequently, government is very committed to implementing the forth coming elections through e-voting. This paper proposes the prospects of m-voting implementation in Nigeria through the use of mobile phones, PDAs, etc. with guaranteed security, secrecy, and convenience in a democratization process. It also reviews the level of adoption of GSM in Nigeria, the implication of voting through the GSM, and finally introducing m-voting innovation in the voting process to increase voters’ access and participation rate in election

Design of a secure unified e-payment system in Nigeria: A case study

The automatic teller machine (ATM) is the most widely used e-Payment instrument in Nigeria. It is responsible for about 89% (in volume) of all e-Payment instruments since 2006 to 2008. Some customers have at least two ATM cards depending on the number of accounts operated by them and they represent the active users of the ATM cards. Furthermore, identity theft has been identified as one of the most prominent problems hindering the wider adoption of e-Business, particularly e-Banking, hence the need for a more secure platform of operation. Therefore, in this paper we propose a unified (single) smart card-based ATM card with biometric-based cash dispenser for all banking transactions. This is to reduce the number of ATM cards carried by an individual and the biometric facility is to introduce another level of security in addition to the PIN which is currently being used. A set of questionnaire was designed to evaluate the acceptability of this concept among users and the architecture of the proposed system is presented