Information technology adoption inhibitor-influencer model for SMEs in the construction industry

Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in the Nigerian construction industry has been struggling with the issues of improper materials management practices. In an attempt to address these issues, Information Technology (IT) was initiated primarily to overcome the shortcomings of the conventional materials management practices. Although, IT was aimed to greatly enhance performance and reduce non-value adding activities, IT structures in reality lack clear adoption realisation process to drive in within such factors to deliver the adoption of IT in SMEs. The current trend of materials management practices in small and medium construction companies has been the subject of criticism. IT adoption has not had the expected resounding success of a total adoption and utilisation. This research has empirically identified factors inhibiting and influencing IT adoption in Nigerian SMEs. The research focuses on the factors with respect to their inhibiting and influencing impact to IT adoption within the context of SMEs in Nigeria with the aim to develop IT adoption inhibitor-influencer model for SME’s IT adoption enhancement. The methodology adopted in this research was mixed methods approach. Interview data was obtained from seven (7) SMEs, based on a systematic sampling of the SMEs in the north-eastern region of Nigeria and the data were analysed using content analysis. Whilst questionnaire survey data was obtained from 187 respondents and the data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the relationships between the exogenous constructs (inhibitor and influencer) to endogenous construct in order to validate and confirm the developed influencing factors for IT adoption model. The findings reveal that cost, government, and employees factors have significant influence on SME’s IT adoption, whilst, technology and practices factors were found to have a partial inhibiting effect on SME’s IT adoption. This research provides a multi-dimensional perspective for the enhancement of SME’s IT adoption and can contribute to high project performance. It is also provide mechanism for realising effective materials management practices for delivering successful projects in the SME construction companies. In conclusion, it is timely to reverse the trend of low IT adoption within SMEs in the construction industry in Nigeria

DeltaTree: A Practical Locality-aware Concurrent Search Tree

As other fundamental programming abstractions in energy-efficient computing, search trees are expected to support both high parallelism and data locality. However, existing highly-concurrent search trees such as red-black trees and AVL trees do not consider data locality while existing locality-aware search trees such as those based on the van Emde Boas layout (vEB-based trees), poorly support concurrent (update) operations. This paper presents DeltaTree, a practical locality-aware concurrent search tree that combines both locality-optimisation techniques from vEB-based trees and concurrency-optimisation techniques from non-blocking highly-concurrent search trees. DeltaTree is a $k$-ary leaf-oriented tree of DeltaNodes in which each DeltaNode is a size-fixed tree-container with the van Emde Boas layout. The expected memory transfer costs of DeltaTree's Search, Insert, and Delete operations are $O(\log_B N)$, where $N, B$ are the tree size and the unknown memory block size in the ideal cache model, respectively. DeltaTree's Search operation is wait-free, providing prioritised lanes for Search operations, the dominant operation in search trees. Its Insert and {\em Delete} operations are non-blocking to other Search, Insert, and Delete operations, but they may be occasionally blocked by maintenance operations that are sometimes triggered to keep DeltaTree in good shape. Our experimental evaluation using the latest implementation of AVL, red-black, and speculation friendly trees from the Synchrobench benchmark has shown that DeltaTree is up to 5 times faster than all of the three concurrent search trees for searching operations and up to 1.6 times faster for update operations when the update contention is not too high

INFORMETRICS ANALYSIS OF AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA INSTITUTIONAL DIGITAL REPOSITORY (IDR)

Employing Informetric analysis, the study investigated the features, types of documents, subjects spread and challenges affecting the growth and development of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Institutional Digital Repositories (ABU-IDR). The findings of the study indicated that the IDR has diverse features, deploying DSpace, Dublin core metadata elements and Open Archive Initiative – Metadata Harvesting Protocol (OAI-PMH) to make the repository robust and interoperable. As reported by earlier studies, ABU-IDR is also found to be dominated by theses and dissertations with 9,857(95.82) documents. Finding on subjects spread of theses and dissertations illustrated that Faculties of Sciences and Education have the largest subject coverage with 1979 (20.1%) and 1702 (17.3%) respectively. With diverse features and deploying DSpace, OAI-PMH and its interoperability, the study concluded that ABU-IDR has gained considerable traction in recent years. However, the IDR can be made more effective and efficient by creating institutional repository policy that will take care of copyright, deposition right, diversification of contents and advocacy which are the major challenges hampering the growth and development of the IDR

Information needs and access of Members of Vigilante in Adamawa State, North -East Nigeria

ABSTRACT The study investigated the Information needs and access of Members of Vigilante in Adamawa state, North-eastern Nigeria, one of the three states bedeviled by the Boko Haram insurgency. Quantitative research methodology and Cross-sectional survey design was applied for the study. The population of the study comprised of One Thousand Four Hundred Members (1400) drawn from Nineteen (19) local governments areas in the state. Krejcie and Morgan Table (1970) was used to draw (302) members as sample of the population, while Walpole’s (1982) formula for proportions was used in arriving at a sample for each stratum (i.e. each local government area). In collecting data, a total of Three Hundred and Two (302) copies of questionnaires were administered, and Two Hundred and Forty 240 copies (79.47%) were returned and found useful. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The outcome of the study revealed that the information needs of members were daily mainly work related and from informal sources, as there were no public libraries/information centers in 17 local governments’ areas of the state. The outcome of the research also revealed barriers to information access to include general lack of formal information infrastructure such as libraries/information centers, poor and unreliable informal information sources, as well as lack of training on information literacy skills for members of Vigilante. It is recommended that there is a need for those involved in vigilante information delivery to continuously examine and identify evolving information needs of members of vigilante in order to meet such needs. Government should resuscitate the dying public libraries in all the local government areas of Adamawa state to provide information services. Libraries should organize training on information literacy and other information use skills for members of vigilante, because if this is done, it will enhance and improve information access across communities in Adamawa state. Finally, information resources be repackaged in order to take care of challenges of proximity to sources of information, language barrier and other challenges faced by members of vigilante

Factors Influencing Students’ Career Choice in Accounting: The Case of Yobe State University

The study examined the factors that influence career choice in accounting among Nigerian university students. Authors in the field of education and behavioural science tend to attribute different factors that influence career choice among individuals. Parental influence, self – desire, better pay, prestige and future prospects were found to be the major influencial factors in career choices among Nigerian University students. The study used survey method with a population of 88 students from the Department of Accountancy, Yobe State Univesity. The finding of this study indicates that self – desire and future pospects have significant influene on the choice of accounting among the study group. The study further recommends that univerisity program be tailored towards the desire of the students and the society and students are acquinted with the need of the profession. Keywords: Accounting, Career Choice, University Students, Accounting education

Zinc Oxide-Catalysed Photo-Oxidative Degradation of Chlorophenols

Chlorophenols are priority pollutants that must be eradicated from the environment owing to the severity of their toxicity and resistance to traditional treatment. Photocatalytic oxidation is an advanced oxidation method which has proven reliability to eliminate persistent pollutants from air and water. The activity of zinc oxide for pollutant removal by photocatalytic oxidation has been well established. In this work the photocatalytic transformation of 4-chlorophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol in irradiated ZnO suspensions at 299 K was studied. The effect of operating parameters such as catalyst and concentration doses on the decomposition rate of these para-chlorinated compounds has been investigated and optimised. It was discovered that the optimum feed concentration for the phenolic compounds is 50 mg L-1. The optimum amount of ZnO was determined for the degradation of 4-chlorophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol which decreased as with increasing of chlorine substituent. For 4-chlorophenol degradation the first clearer description of the effect of doses using response surface was reported. Kinetic profiles on the decomposition of chlorophenols over ZnO were consistent with pseudo-zeroeth order rate scheme. For 2,4-dichlorophenol and 2,4,6- trichlorophenol the decomposition was slow at the short irradiation time. It was found that the degradability of chlorophenols increased as the number of ringchlorine increased. The effect of pH on the destruction rate was found to be influenced by chlorophenol adsorption and dissociation equilibrium. The effect of different anions on the rate of chlorophenol degradation was evaluated by utilising sodium salts as additives. Except for 4-chlorophenol it was found that, inorganic anion additives such as SO4 2-, S2O8 2- and Cl- demonstrated inhibition to the decomposition rate of chlorophenol. HPO4 2- was found to show strongest inhibition and could even hamper the degradation of 4-chlorophenol. The progression of intermediates during the mineralisation of chlorophenols was chromatographed on high performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC). The structure elucidation of pathway products en route to mineralisation of chlorophenols was performed by the combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and HPLC methods. The study disclosed some hitherto unreported intermediates of photocatalytic decomposition of 4-chlorophenol and 2,4-dichlorophenol. Catechol was detected as new intermediate of 4-chlorophenol degradation. Similarly, 4- hydroxybenzaldehyde, benzoquinone and 4-chlorophenol are for the first time reported for 2,4-dichlorophenol degradation. The work also revealed the intermediates of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol which have not been in literature. It is highlighted herein the mechanism of formation of all pathway intermediates

Frameworks for Teachers’ Knowledge of Mathematics

This paper, describes seven teacher knowledge frameworks and relates these frameworks to the teaching and assessment of elementary teachers’ mathematics knowledge. The frameworks classify teachers’ knowledge and provide a vocabulary and common language through which knowledge can be discussed and assessed. These frameworks are categorized into two classes: content knowledge and content knowledge for teaching. Content knowledge frameworks include Instrumental and Relational Understandings, Procedural and Conceptual Understandings, Depth of Knowledge; and  Cognitive Complexities. Content knowledge for teaching frameworks includes. Type of Teachers Knowledge and  Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching. The Diagnostic Teacher Assessment of Mathematics and Science (DTAMS), a tool that assesses both mathematics teachers’ depth of conceptual knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, is used to concretely connect the frameworks. The paper concludes with examples of quantitative assessments of teachers’ mathematics knowledge based on these teachers’ knowledge frameworks

Information technology: a tool for effective SME material management practices

Nowadays, various strategies have been adopted to ensure reduction or elimination of waste in materials management practices in the construction industry for overall project performance. However, there are significant challenges related to Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) materials management practices, these challenges arise due to shortage of skills, practical know how, workers capability and financial difficulties in information technology (IT) adoption. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the potentials of IT as a tool for waste elimination or reduction in the Nigerian SME materials management practices for overall projects performance. The data were collected using structured questionnaires and administered to SME in the construction industry in the Northeast of Nigeria. The obtained data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to determine significant level of IT in SME materials management practices. Outcome from the model of this study revealed that, IT adoption is significant with R2 =0.622 (62.2%) which indicates that adoption of IT can improve SME materials management practices for overall projects performance

Comparative analysis of ZnO-catalyzed photo-oxidation of p-chlorophenols

The present study compares for the first time the photocatalytic oxidation of three p-chlorophenols (4-chlorophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol) in irradiated ZnO suspensions. The effect of operating parameters such as catalyst and concentration doses on the decomposition rate of these p-chlorinated compounds has been studied and optimized. The optimal feed concentration for each of the chlorinated phenolic compounds is 50 mg/L whereas the ZnO doses decreased as the number of chlorine substituent is increased. Kinetic profiles on the decomposition of chlorophenols over ZnO agreed with the pseudo-zeroeth order rate scheme with rate constants following the order 2,4,6-trichlorophenol > 2,4-dichlorophenol > 4-chlorophenol. The validity of the pseudo zero order model could be linked to the initial doses of the chlorophenols used vis-à-vis the catalyst. The study revealed stable intermediates of photocatalytic chlorophenol transformation by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique. A combined mechanism is given to account for the photocatalytic destruction of the chlorophenols

The Need for an Effective Collaboration Across Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) Fields for a Meaningful Technological Development in Nigeria

Collaboration plays a major role in interdisciplinary activities among Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) disciplines or fields. It also affects the relationships among cluster members on the management team. Although effective collaboration does not guarantee success among STEM disciplines, its absence usually assures problems. More specifically, collaboration has the obvious roles of identifying talents coming together for a common purpose of combining knowledge and sharing responsibility, creativity, and experience of others. Facilitating collaboration across Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields in program development is critical to providing a strong educational foundation to all learners in STEM education. This synergistic effort among educators and other professionals across the STEM fields will enable effective knowledge sharing in program development. This paper addresses leadership and knowledge sharing among collaborators in STEM program development through facilitating collaboration across STEM fiel