Machine Learning Overview

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Types of Machine Learning Algorithms

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Relationship between Economic Status of Members of Community Based Associations and Their Level of Participation in Development Projects in Kwara State, Nigeria

This study determined the relationship between economic status of members of Community Based Associations (CBAs) and their level of participation in development projects in Kwara state, Nigeria. Three objectives were raised, one research question answered and two hypotheses tested. The study used survey as well as correlation research designs. The population of the study was 15,000 members of 496 CBAs in Kwara State but only 1170 were selected as sample for the purpose of the study while 1008, respondents who completed the instrument adequately were used for the analysis. The sample was selected using multi-stage sampling technique. An instrument ‘tagged’ economic status and participation questionnaire (ESPQ) was used to collect the data analysed. The instrument was validated and tested for reliability using odd-even reliability technique. A reliability coefficient of 0.761 obtained was found to be statistically significant at P<0.05. Descriptive statistics of frequency counts, percentages and weighted scores were used in answering the research question. Multiple correlation analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to test the hypotheses. All decisions were taken at probability level of 0.05. First, the study found that the level of participation was 2.62 (52.4%) on a scale of 5 which was considered to be high. Second, the relationship between economic status and level of participation was statistically significant at F (5,1002) = 23.422.  Third, the variables of the economic status explained 10.5 percent of the variation in the level of participation with employment, access to water and transportation making statistically significant contributions. Based on the findings recommendations were made. Among others, it was recommended that enabling environment should be created for members to be employed. Keywords: Economic Status, Community Based Associations, Participation, Development Projects, Kwara State, Nigeri

Effect of Logistics, Supply Input, Production and Finance on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Performance in Kaduna State

This paper examined the effect of logistics, supply input, production and finance on small and medium enterprises performance in Kaduna State. Questionnaire was distributed using stratified sampling. 174 copies of the questionnaire were used for the analysis with a population of 201 registered owners/manager of SMEs operating within the state. PLS-SEM path modelling were used to process data. Findings reveal that logistics, production as well as finance has significant effect on SMEs performance, while supply input has negative and insignificant effect on performance of SMEs. The study concludes that logistics, production, supply input and finance is important to improve SMEs performance. The study therefore Recommends that the Government pay more attention to the development of the value chain to reorient the SME sector and implement a new strategy based on the principle that SMEs are a business that can provide a reasonable basis for greater wealth, growth employment and improves the capacity of the country to earn foreign currency through small and medium enterprises

Higher Education Student Entrepreneurship Support Services: Implications for the Development of Entrepreneurial Skills

Entrepreneurship and skills development centers have been established in Nigerian universities to actively support the development of entrepreneurial mindsets that would encourage students to create jobs after graduation. However, the batched approach to the provision of entrepreneurial support to students appears to be reducing the extent to which desired outcomes are achieved. This study investigates the relationships between student support services, entrepreneurship skills development, and student entrepreneurship in public and private universities in Lagos and Ogun States. A mixed-method research design was employed. The sample for this study comprised of 2394 students and 6 directors of entrepreneurship centers selected through a multi-stage sampling technique. Two objectives, two research questions, and one hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. Data were analysed through frequency counts, mean, and standard deviation, while the hypothesis was tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation. Qualitative data were analyzed through verbatim reports and emerging themes and patterns from transcribed key informant interviews. Results showed a strong positive relationship (r = 0.42*, P =.01<0.05) between student support and entrepreneurship skills development thereby providing evidence of student support being a significant driver of entrepreneurship development. It was concluded that student support programs promote student entrepreneurship in Higher Educational settings but such support needs to be personalized to meet the diverse needs of student entrepreneurs. Among others, it was recommended that universities should invest in partnerships that will drive informal and personalized support in terms of internships, competition, and seed grants that comprised the use of mentors as hand-holders. Such support should however be structured in ways that make measurement of impact possible.     &nbsp

Risks, responsibility and rights in transgenic plant technology governance: a transnational perspective

Whilst the adoption of commercial transgenic plant agriculture continues to spread globally, it is not necessarily indicative of universal support, and would appear to belie the inherent existential tensions and conflicting rights between transgenic, organic, and conventional plant agricultural systems. These tensions are typically vented via the inevitable adventitious presence of transgenes in non-transgenic crops, and the competing, and often conflicting scientific and acrimonious claims and counter-claims on the merits and proprieties of transgenic plant agriculture for the environment and public health. Nevertheless, the virtual irreversibility of transgenic plant agriculture, the exigencies of feeding the growing world population amidst continuing global food security scares, and the continuing dependency of livestock farming on transgenic plant feedstuff, especially in Europe, underscore the imperatives for mutual co-existence of all three forms of plant agricultural systems. Drawing on the socio-legal theory that risks and responsibility are correlatives, it is argued in the thesis that our “technological society” is also a “risk society”, and as it is for comparable “technologies of risk” in the post-industrial era, the regulatory framework for the co-existence of transgenic and non-transgenic plant agriculture, must of necessity, invoke corresponding responsibility in law for any consequential economic loss and damage to the environment and public health, in order balance and moderate the conflicting rights in the coexistence paradigm for transgenic and non-transgenic plant agriculture. Whilst drawing on relevant and analogous case law and legislations from the United Kingdom, the European Union and North America, the thesis defines the boundaries of inherent risks, responsibility and rights in the current coexistence paradigm for transgenic and non-transgenic plant agriculture, and proposes a modality for an effective sui generis compensation regime, as an integral part of the broader coexistence policy, on the grounds that such a regime could moderate conflicting rights, increase public acceptance, and build public confidence in transgenic plant technology, rather than hinder its continuing global growth and promise

Factors Influencing Smallholder Farmers’ Participation in Cooperative Organization in Rural Nigeria

This study investigates the factors that influences smallholder rice farmers’ participation in cooperative organisations. it seek to provide answers to the reason why some rice  farmers join cooperatives while others are reluctant to join or drop out, in spite of the benefits associate with being a member. The 341 farming households was selected through multistage random sampling procedure. The data was collected and analysed using well-structured questionnaire and probit model, respectively. The results reveal among many others that cooperative members have higher income per hectare than the non-cooperative members. Younger and male farmers are more likely to participate in cooperative organization. Farmers with small farm size have the highest probability of participation than those with large farm size. Contact with extension agents and education positively influence the probability of participation.  In order to improve participation in cooperative organization, this study therefore, recommends that female headed households should be the focus of attention of any program aim to increase cooperative membership in rural Nigeria. Contact with extension agents and years of education of the household head should be improved. Programs, strategies and policies that are targeted at the achievement of increase agricultural productivity should be intensified. Keyword: Rice, farmer, cooperative, Nigeria JEL Classification: D02, J54, O12, P1