Improving Organizational Culture and Workers Job Satisfaction Among University Lecturers in Cross River State, Nigeria

The issue of job satisfaction among lecturers in universities in Nigeria has remained a source of concern to all stakeholders in university education system. It is a well-known fact today that, job satisfaction affects staff commitment and consequently job performance. The objective of this study was to investigate organizational culture and job satisfaction of university lecturers in Cross River State. The ex post facto research design was adopted for the study. Three hypotheses were tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient statistics, at 0.05 level of significance. The population of the study stood at 4020 lecturers from two public universities in Cross River State. Multi-staged sampling procedure was used in sampling the respondents of the study. In all, 402 lecturers representing 10% of the entire population were selected. The questionnaire method was used for the purpose of data collection for the study. The questionnaire is titled Organizational Culture and Job Satisfaction of University Lecturers Questionnaire (OCJSULQ). t. To obtain the reliability of the instrument, a trial test of 40 respondents was conducted outside the sample area. The Cronbach Alpha reliability test was employed analyzing the data. The exercise produced a reliability coefficient of 0.98. Results showed that there was a significant relationship between organizations’ vision/mission, management-employee relationship, standard practices and lecturers’ job satisfaction. Based on the findings, it was recommended among other things that, while trying to maintain best standard practices, organizations should ensure such processes does not infringe on the rights of its employee

Transient Accelerated Expansion and Double Quintessence

We consider Double Quintessence models for which the Dark Energy sector consists of two coupled scalar fields. We study in particular the possibility to have a transient acceleration in these models. In both Double Quintessence models studied here, it is shown that if acceleration occurs, it is necessarily transient. We consider also the possibility to have transient acceleration in two one-field models, the Albrecht-Skordis model and the pure exponential. Using separate conservative constraints (marginalizing over the other parameters) on the effective equation of state $w_{eff}$, the relative density of the Dark Energy $\Omega_{Q,0}$ and the present age of the universe, we construct scenarios with a transient acceleration that has already ended at the present time, and even with no acceleration at all, but a less conservative analysis using the CMB data rules out the last possibility. The scenario with a transient acceleration ended by today, can be implemented for the range of cosmological parameters $\Omega_{m,0}\gtrsim 0.35$ and $h\lesssim 0.68$.Comment: Version accepted in Phys. Rev. D, 22 pages, 10 figures, 4 table

Double-average methodology applied to turbulent gravel-bed river flows

River hydrodynamicsTurbulent open channel flow and transport phenomen

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES AND THEIR ENTREPRENEURIAL BUSINESS VENTURE CHOICES IN CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT EFFECTIVENESS

This study investigated the influence of University Students’ Demographic Variables on their Entrepreneurial Business Venture Choices in Cross River State, Nigeria and its implication for management effectiveness. Two null hypotheses were formulated and tested at .05 level of significance. Ex post facto design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised three thousand, nine hundred and sixty (3,960) final year students of nine (9) faculties from two universities (University of Calabar and Cross River University of Technology) in Cross River State. The sample was three hundred and ninety six (396) final year students drawn from the faculties through stratified random sampling technique. A researcher-developed questionnaire named “Students’ Demographics and Entrepreneurial Business Venture Choice Questionnaire (SDEBVCQ)” was used for data collection. Contingency Chi-square analysis was used in testing the two hypotheses. Results of the analysis revealed that there is a significant influence of ethnic/geo-political and family business background on entrepreneurial business venture choices of university students. Based on these results, it was recommended that wide range of business choices should be provided in the entrepreneurial programme for students to choose from with emphasis on their demographics. The university system should device strategies to assist the students that indicated their intentions to start enterprises while in school and after graduation through incubation programmes.  Article visualizations

Chemical and organoleptic evaluation of fermented maize (Zea mays) gruel supplemented with fermented cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) flour and roasted melon seed (Citrullus vulgaris) paste

This work examined the chemical and organoleptic profile of fermented maize gruel enriched with roasted melon and fermented local species of cowpea (oraludi). The chemical composition of the processed food samples were assessed using standard methods. Blends were formulated in the ratio of 70: 30 (14 g protein basis) of maize gruel and cowpea flour or melon paste; and 70: 20: 10 (14 g protein basis) of maize gruel, cowpea flour and melon paste. Young students of the University community were selected for sensory evaluation. Sensory attributes were assessed with a nine-point Hedonic scale. Fermented maize gruel was the control. The proximate result reveals that melon paste had higher values than cowpea flour in protein, ash, crude fibre and fat (35.00: 29.75; 3.60: 2.40; 4.85: 2.33 and 39.95: 3.15%, respectively). Cowpea flour showed superior percentage value to melon paste in moisture and carbohydrate (8.76: 2.28; 57.26: 14.32%, respectively). Melon paste and cowpea flour had close values for iron (5.53: 5.48 mg/100 g, respectively) and zinc (0.019: 0.012 mg/100 g, respectively). There was not much difference in the phytate and tannins values of melon paste and cowpea flour (0.12: 0.18; 8.81: 10.48 mg/100 g, respectively). The blends were generally acceptable (5.46 to 6.88; p>0.05). Composite blends of locally available and under-utilized legumes should be used to add variety to infant diet.Keywords: Complementary food, gruel, chemical composition, organoleptic test.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(36), pp. 5549-555

Cost-effectiveness of a multicomponent primary care program targeting frail elderly people

Contains fulltext : 191679.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Coulomb correlation effects in semiconductor quantum dots: The role of dimensionality

We study the energy spectra of small three-dimensional (3D) and two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor quantum dots through different theoretical approaches (single-site Hubbard and Hartree-Fock hamiltonians); in the smallest dots we also compare with exact results. We find that purely 2D models often lead to an inadequate description of the Coulomb interaction existing in realistic structures, as a consequence of the overestimated carrier localization. We show that the dimensionality of the dots has a crucial impact on (i) the accuracy of the predicted addition spectra; (ii) the range of validity of approximate theoretical schemes. When applied to realistic 3D geometries, the latter are found to be much more accurate than in the corresponding 2D cases for a large class of quantum dots; the single-site Hubbard hamiltonian is shown to provide a very effective and accurate scheme to describe quantum dot spectra, leading to good agreement with experiments.Comment: LaTeX 2.09, RevTeX, 25 pages, 9 Encapsulated Postscript figures. To be published in Physical Review

Bianchi Type I Cosmology in Generalized Saez-Ballester Theory via Noether Gauge Symmetry

In this paper, we investigate the generalized Saez-Ballester scalar-tensor theory of gravity via Noether gauge symmetry (NGS) in the background of Bianchi type I cosmological spacetime. We start with the Lagrangian of our model and calculate its gauge symmetries and corresponding invariant quantities. We obtain the potential function for the scalar field in the exponential form. For all the symmetries obtained, we determine the gauge functions corresponding to each gauge symmmetry which include constant and dynamic gauge. We discuss cosmological implications of our model and show that it is compatible with the observational data.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in 'European Physical Journal C

Cosmic Evolution with Early and Late Acceleration Inspired by Dual Nature of the Ricci Scalar Curvature

In the present paper, it is found that dark energy emerges spontaneously from the modified gravity. According to cosmological scenario, obtained here, the universe inflates for $\sim 10^{-37}$ sec. in the beginning and late universe accelerates after 8.58 Gyrs. During the long intermediate period, it decelerates driven by radiation and subsequently by matter. Emerged gravitational dark energy mimics quintessence and its density falls by 115 orders from its initial value $2.58\times 10^{68} {\rm GeV}^4$ to its current value $2.19\times 10^{-47} {\rm GeV}^4$ .Comment: 40 pages. To appearin Int. J. Mod. Phys.