Information Needs and Characteritics of the Users of Rural Libraries in Ekiti State, Nigeria

The paper examines the information needs and characteristics of the users of rural libraries in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Users of libraries in three rural areas of the three senatorial districts of Ekiti State were surveyed. This was aimed at investigating the reading needs, sources of information, level of education of users and benefits of rural libraries to them. Questionnaire was used to collect data; tables and simple percentage were adopted in the data analysis. A major revelation of the study is that the library constitutes the major source of information for rural dwellers. Books are the major reading materials of rural people. It concluded by giving recommendations towards the improvement of information needs of rural dwellers by improving the provision of library services to them

Nigeria Paper Currency Serial Number Pattern Recognition System for Crimes Control

Only secured and conducive environment void of robbery, kidnapping, fake currency and all forms of insurgencies will foster production and distribution of goods, investment and saving that enhance national economic growth and development. This is a mirage in a country generally believed and tagged the giant of African; Nigeria. Crime, in whatever name or nomenclature, has a significant negative impact on the welfare and economy prosperities of our society. The urge to get rich promotes Crime like armed robbery, kidnapping for ransom and production of counterfeit banknotes to mention but a few. Innocent people have suffered psychological distress, fear, anger, depression, physical harm, financial loss and in most cases untimely death during the operations by these hoodlums. Banks, Cash-In-Transit Vehicle, and ATM points are often robbed by gangs in search for paper currency. Kidnappers as well demand for paper currency as ransom while some other gangs are involved in the production of counterfeit banknotes so as to enrich themselves no minding the negative effect on the nation’s economy.  The banknotes collected during the operations by the hoodlums are taken to banks. Yet, the banks will not detect or recognize any of these notes which attest to the fact that our system lacks check and balance. The system is very porous without a recourse to this era of technology when machine is trained to do virtually everything for our convenience. Currency as an entity has a unique identification number. The identification number is an alphanumeric currency issuance of about 10 digits comprises two (2) capital letters and eight (8) numbers usually positioned at a strategic location on either front or back of the 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes. It is a reliable and intelligent system developed to track banknotes unique identifiers numbers- serial numbers, in order to control financial related crimes. Keywords: Nigeria Paper Currency Serial Number, Pattern Recognition DOI: 10.7176/IKM/11-3-04 Publication date: April 30th 202

Response of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench) to weed control by mulching

The effects of mulching material on okra performance during the rainy seasons of 1999 and 2000 were evaluated at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria. Three mulch types–plastic mulch, grass mulch (Panicum maximum) and wood shavings (of Tectonia grandis)– were compared with hand weeding and no weeding control in a randomized complete block experiment with three replications. Growth and yield characteristics of okra were assessed together with weed control efficiency under the five treatments. Okra growth and yield were significantly (P hoe weeding > wood shavings > grass mulch.Les expériences se sont déroulées au champ d'enseignement et de recherche de l'Université de Technology de Ladoke Akintola à Ogbomoso pour évaluer les effets de matériel de paillis sur le rendement de gombo pendant les saisons des pluies de 1999 et 2000. Trois types de paillis-paillis en plastique, paillis en herbe (Panicum maximum) et paillis en copeaux de bois (de Tectonia grandis) étaient comparés avec le désherbage à la main et le contrôle de non désherbage dans une expérience de bloc complet choisi au hasard avec trois reproductions. Les paramètres de croissance et de rendement de gombo étaient évalués ensemble avec l'efficacité du contrôle de mauvaise herbe sous les cinq traitements. La croissance et le rendement de gombo étaient considérablement (P sarclage > copeaux de bois > paillis en herbe. Ghana Journal of Agricultural Science Vol. 39 (1) 2006: pp. 35-4

Stakeholders Perception of Factors Determining the Adoptability of Green Building Practices In Construction Projects In Nigeria

Within the Nigerian construction industry there has been a lack of research profiling the adoptability of green building practices in construction projects. The aim of this study is to investigate factors determining the adoptability of green building practices. The objectives of the study are to compare perception of stakeholders on factors determining the adoptability of green building principles in construction projects and also to find out the constraints in implementing green building principles. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information from various respondents who were built environment professionals. Random sampling technique was used to select one hundred and fifty (150) respondents out of which ninety-one (91) responses were used for the data analysis. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results indicated that green building practices adoptable by  building industry professional include, site sustainability, material and resource conservation, energy conservation, maintenance and building operation, occupant health and safety, water conservation, recycling and waste reduction.  Barriers affecting green practices include lack of awareness, expertise and higher cost. The findings have important implications for policy and practice. The study recommends full establishment of Green Building Council of Nigeria (GBCN) that will be responsible for awareness creation, introduction of guidelines, tools and techniques that will drive green building practices for future project. KEYWORDS: Adoptability, Green Building, Nigeria, Perception, Stakeholders

Effects of Different Strategies Adopted by Rural Women on their Food Security in Oyo State

The study assessed the effects of different strategies adopted by rural women on their food securityin Oyo State. Multistage sampling procedure was adopted for this research work. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and binomial logit model. Majority (93.5 percent) of the sampled women were married, while 6.5 percent of them were widowed. The mean age was 49 years. Backyard farming (= -1.000333343) had a negative but significant relationship to household food insecurity while reduction of meals (= 1.312270792) had a positive and significant relationship to household food insecurity. It was recommended that, program aimed at reducing poverty should be implemented in other to ensure that households were able to afford adequate mealsalso; backyard farming should be encouraged among rural women

The profession and practice of consultation: A handbook for consultants, trainers of consultants and consumers of consultation services : June Gallessich, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1982

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/24954/1/0000381.pd

Effect of Information Technology Investment on Organisational Productivity and Growth of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Developing Countries: A Case of Sachet and Table Water Industries in Lagos State, Nigeria

The objective of this paper is to determine the effect of information technological investment on employee’s output performance. Subject for the study consisted of seventy employees of sachet and table water manufacturing industries, Lagos, Nigeria. Data for the study were collected through a well-structured questionnaire delivered to the workers of the sachet and table water companies. We used F test, T test, regression and correlation to test our hypotheses whether information technology usage in production processes , work environment and management style boost up  the output performance  of an employees. The findings of the study showed that there exist strong positive relationship and significant effect between aggregate output, technology usage, work environment, and management style and that the technological usage in production processes has the highest contribution to boost aggregate output performance of an employees in sachet and table water manufacturing companies. Keywords: Information Technology, Output, Performance, Manufacturing Companies, Work Environment, Management Style

Assessment of Groundwater System Characteristics in Ilorin Metropolis, South-Western Nigeria

Geochemical analysis of shallow groundwater from Ilorin metropolis was carried out with the aim of assessing the hydrogeochemical characteristics of the groundwater. Thirty (30) boreholes were examined and samples were collected from these boreholes. These samples were subjected to chemical analyses to determine both cations and anions compositions of the groundwater. The concentrations of cations (trace elements) were determined using AAS at the Department of Geology while major cations were determined using flame photometry emission at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research Laboratory University of Ibadan. The compositions of anions in the samples were analyzed using titration method at the National Geo-Hazard Research Laboratory, Ibadan. Some physical parameters such as TDS, pH, EC as well as colour and odour were determined insitu. The results of the physical parameters show that EC ranged from 44.3 - 1079μs/cm; TDS 10.6 – 501.0mg/l. The results of the chemical analysis in mg/l for trace elements showed that Cd (0.57 – 0.58), Co (3.84 – 3.87), Cr (3.41 – 3.79) and Ni (0.00 – 0.11); Major elements: Ca (1.20 – 6.60); Mg (2.40 – 5.53); K (1.45 - 5.86) while the results of the anions showed that concentrations (mg/l) of Cl ranged from (6.00 – 229.95), HCO3 (0.20 – 2.18), SO4 (0.01 – 1.47) and NO3 (0.09 – 0.35). Further evaluation of the results shows that samples from areas that are densely populated and dominated with lot of commercial activities have high concentrations of chloride, nitrate, Cd and bicarbonate. The results of the analysis were compared with the WHO Standards and it was observed that Cd and chloride were far greater than WHO Standards recommended for safe drinking wate

Bi-Modal System Using SVM (Support Vector Machine) and MLP (Multilayer Perceptron) -Proposed

In this era of high technological advancement, the need to identify an individual especially in the developing countries has long been an attractive goal. The necessity to secure an environments, devices and resources due to the increasing rate of crime has led to the proposal of this research. Iris modality has become interesting as an alternative approach to reliable visual recognition of persons due to its distinctive characteristics, as well as fingerprint modality for its innumerable advantages. Therefore a bi-modal biometric system using Qualitative SVM (Support Vector Machine) and MLP (Multilayer Perceptron) for classification has been proposed in this research. Performance analysis of these modalities will be carried out with each model. The designed models will be duly implemented using JAVA programming Language as a frontend and Access database as a backend respectively. Keywords: Biometric, Bimodal system, Iris modality, fingerprint modality, Support Vector Machine and Multilayer Perceptron