Peer-reviewed international research papers published open-access with EOI assignment and global indexing across engineering, computer science, environmental science, social sciences, and more.
The sex marketplace comprises children and adults who sell sex as a means of earning a livelihood, as well as individuals whose decisions to enter a sexual relationship and whose choice of partner are predicated on the receipt of material resources. Men who sell their bodies are perceived as immoral; they endure a social stigma and the burden of being judged as socially inferior and dishonourable, generating claims of protection and redemption. Homosexuality is a growing sexual behaviour which is trending among different societies; meanwhile there is a general prejudice towards them in most African countries including Ghana. This study adopted a qualitative, phenomenological research design to understand and describe male sex work. The study found that young men go into homosexual activities and commercial sex work for a wide-range of reasons which could be classified as pull and push factors. Participants revealed that their clients include politicians, tourists, businessmen, popular figures in the society and anyone who can pay good money. Social media has been identified as one of the platforms used to get connected to clients and service providers. Determined efforts should be made to control the malaise of unemployment, sexual abuse and poverty which stand as push factors to socially condemned behaviours.
This study aims to examine the effect of macroeconomic factors and company's financial performance on stock returns and the effect of systematic risk as a variable mediating the relationship between macroeconomic factors and company's financial performance on LQ45 index companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in the period 2014-2018. This study uses a quantitative approach. The object under study is companies included in the LQ 45 stock index during the 2014-2018 period. The samples in this study were 22 companies, obtained using purposive sampling technique. Data obtained by non-participant observation and analyzed using the path analysis method that is processed with SPSS ver. 23. The results showed that: 1) Macroeconomic variables have a positive effect on systematic risk. 2) The company's financial performance variable has a positive effect on systematic risk. 3) Macroeconomic variables have a negative effect on stock returns. 4) The company's financial performance variable has a positive effect on stock returns. 5) The systematic risk variable has a positive effect on stock returns. 6) The systematic risk variable is able to mediate the relationship between macroeconomic factors on stock returns. 7) The systematic risk variable is able to mediate the relationship between the company's financial performance and stock returns.
The smartphone device is getting popular among the people. The more functionality offered by smartphones, the more difficult for people to get away of it [1]. The growing demand of smartphones, availability of the Internet, and high speed mobile browsing are ready to provide an alternative channel to deliver education services [2]. Therefore, researchers aim to develop an academic information system application to make it easier for teachers, parents and students to get academic information at educational institutions. The information contained in this academic information system application includes attendance data, class schedules, grade reports, student announcements, and user profiles. The existing information system cannot be accessed optimally because it is still processed on manual systems. Therefore, academic information cannot be given to the parents and students in an optimal way. To solve these issues, the researchers implemented push notification technology into the academic information system application which is expected to be able to solve the shortcomings of the old academic information system. With push notification technology, users can receive updated information with a good experience. The implementation of this application uses the Model-View-Presenter (MVP) architecture where the application development pattern is divided into several different parts which include the model, view and presenter sections. The method used in this research is the Rapid Application Development (RAD) development method which aims to provide faster development and get better quality results compared to the results achieved through traditional cycles [3]. The development stage starts with the requirement planning, system design and implementation stages. The result of this study is an academic information system application with an android platform that can overcome problems contained in the old academic information system.
In this work a study of gully erosion in southeast Nigeria is presented. The study of gully development on a regional scale is currently undermined by the inherent costs associated with consistent field monitoring and the lack of historic measurements to perform time series analysis. As a result, there are very few studies which implement long term analyses of gullies in the region as a collective. Consequently, the building of knowledge of the role of environmental changes on the development of gullies is inhibited. Remote sensing methodologies, via the Landsat archive, are used as a low-cost data source to allow analyses of gullies over the time period 1986 to 2015. 14 gully sites, identified via field work validation of remote sensing imagery, are monitored in terms of extent and rates of change. Digital Elevation Models (DEM) and remote sensing imagery are used to detect topographical and landscape characteristics and to calculate gully dimensions. The gully areas and % change graphs show how the gullies have been changing over the years. The older gullies Iyioku, Okigwe, Njaba and Igboukwu show that their development precedes 1986 but also, aside from Iyioku, that along the way gully % rate of change has been reducing. The more recently formed gullies, all the displayed gullies are showing positive relationships between time and gully size although the proportional change each year is changeable. For instance; Iyioku and Okigwe have similar characteristics in terms of gully area and at yearly gully change in metre squared per square metre. This can be found in 2015 gully areas and 2014/2015 yearly gully change in metre squared per square metre of 1701881m2 and 0.05m2yr-1 for each unit area and 666930m2 and 0.04m2yr-1 for each unit area respectively. In a similar fashion Urualla and Orlu gullies show similar characteristics, with (43569.9m2, 0.07m2yr-1) and Orlu (47297m2 -0.05m2yr-1) respectively showing almost similar characteristics and magnitudes in area sizes and yearly gully change.
Nigeria’s interest and clamouring for the permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council date back to as early as Nigeria had successfully represented Africa as a non-permanent member in the United nations for five times and as a major contributor to peace globally and with its size of population, the country deserves a permanent membership position in the United Nations security Council. But does Nigeria truly have what it takes to rightly assert her position and achieve this ambition in terms of robust economy that determines and influences all other subsystems such as politics, education and socio-cultural life of a people This paper therefore maintains that unless Nigeria first of all, puts her Economy in order, her quest for a permanent membership of the UNSC may remain a fleeting illusion to be pursued. The present status of the Nigerian economy, signify an unrealizable reality since the dictates of the theory of political realism showed that the UNSC permanent membership cannot be achieved based on huge contributions to UN peace keeping missions and leadership in Africa alone. The study recommends that, the Nigeria economy must be reformed and diversified. Nigeria must endeavour to pay adequate attention to other sectors of the economy with a view to freeing the economy from over reliance on oil. Agriculture must be reformed to a sustainable profitable sector while minerals and metals sector must be prompted as an important component of a diversified economy; the state of security in the polity must be urgently addressed to forestall the disintegration of the country. Government must re-organize the armed forces and other security agencies to update their operations. Clear and perceived causes of insecurity must be plugged such as unemployment, ethnicism, poor control of borders which encourages smuggling of goods, weapons and drugs.
In times of globalization and more expressed interaction in such a complex and unstable environment, the human resources have an economic mission, and represent a major starter of economic development. This paper examines the key issues that affect the role and management of the human resources in tourism. Today, the modern tourism in the world is characterized by new organizational and schematic mechanisms as dynamic processes that increasingly challenge in the 21st century tourism, not only as an integral part of the economic development - but also as a factor of crutial meaning to its development. The human resources as a critical dimension in frame of successful delivery of tourisam service have influence on the successful performance of the tourist companies that largely take care of people through the concept and process of training of personnel who are contemporary reflection of the measure rhetorics of the people and for the organization presenting the greatest value Key words: Human resources, training, tourism, development
Since the launch of Commercial bank of Africa’s M-Shwari in 2012, Kenya’s first digital banking product which offers a savings account and access to digital credit, the market for digital credit has expanded rapidly in Kenya. Digital credit is now offered by most commercial banks as well as privately developed loan apps from able lenders. In the first two years, CBA through its M-Shwari product had already dished out over 20 million loans to 2.6 million borrowers while Kenya Commercial Bank’s KCB-Mpesa helped them to grow from 200,000 new loans per year to about 4,000,000 (Totolo, 2017). A recent report from FSD Kenya indicates that 29 per cent of mobile phone owners in Kenya have borrowed from M-Shwari and there are over 49 loan apps in the country. Also, according to the report, in Kenya’s digital lending market share, M-Shwari is leading followed by KCB M-Pesa at twelve per cent, Equity Eazzy at four per cent, Tala at 1.8 per cent and MCo-op Cash at 1.3 per cent (Mbogo, 2018). Surveys show that most traditional borrowers tend to be male however digital credit appeals to younger consumers of both genders with almost equal participation. The survey also shows that they are unique borrowers and relatively highly educated. Generally, providers confirm that men tend to borrow larger sums of money and more frequently than their female counterparts (Totolo, 2018). What is debatable is who is using digital credit? Why they are using it? And when? What is not debatable however is that it has grown tremendously over the last seven years hence raising a lot of concerns and issues from market stakeholders and regulators in the sector. This study’s objective was to examine the determinants of Digital Credit Apps adoption and continuous use in Kenya. The researcher used descriptive survey research design. The target population was smart phone users in Nairobi, its environs and 2 rural areas with a good number of mobile smart phone use. The researcher selected a sample of 600 users from the targeted areas. The researcher used purpose random sampling to select the respondents. Data was collected from the primary source. The collection of primary data was done using a combination of structured survey questionnaires and personal interviews, which were administered to the respondents. The data was edited then cording and tabulation was carried out using SPSS. The data was analyzed using qualitative and quantitative techniques.
The foremost aim of this work is to have access to all the details of a passport holder by using smart card technology. A smart card is given to the authorized person who will own all the details required for passport verification. This card will contain the name, A Unique Identifier,(UID) number, Date of Birth, Occupation, Nationality and all other required details. An Integrated Circuit (IC) used on this card which will be responsible for storing, processing the information through modulation and demodulation on the Radio Frequency (RF) signal which will be transmitted by the reader. The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader will read the data present in the RFID passport and sends the data wirelessly by using RF transceiver. As soon as the card is kept on the card reader, the details of the person appear on the computer screen and verify it using the data present in the system and if it matches, the details of the passport holder is displayed. It reduces the burden of documentation which thereby reduces the time consumption and also protects the problem of forgery. This makes the system centralized by increasing the security. Key Words: wireless e-passport, RFID reader, authenticity of information, smart card reader.
Marble dust is intended to increase mechanical properties like compressive, tensile and flexural strength of concrete as well as to reduce the cost of fine aggregate. The concrete mix consists of cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and marble dust as fine aggregate replacer. Fine aggregate is replaced by marble dust by 10, 20, 30,40,50,75 and 100 percent by weight. Primarily, the concrete specimens with and without marble dust will be casted to determine the improvement of certain mechanical properties. The water to cement ratio was kept constant i-e 0.55. The compressive strength, tensile strength and flexural strength of cylinders and beams was measured for 28 days. All the materials used in the project are acquired from the local resources. The compressive strength increase with the addition of marble. Sand is 100% replaceable by marble, but the ultimate strength is gained with the addition of 50% of marble dust. Split tensile strength of marble concrete has also increased by the addition of marble dust up to 50%. While flexural strength was increased with the addition of marble dust up to 30%. Further addition reduces the strength. The water demand of the marble concrete increases with increase in marble dust. Hence it can be concluded that marble dust is completely compatable with locally manufactured concrete materials.
This study is ab0ut the effect 0f c0nstructi0n 0n envir0nment. The Researcher has taken the M0hmand Dam as a case study f0r this research paper. The previ0us studies investigated and f0und that Envir0nment greatly effect by the civil Engineering pr0jects. The aim 0f the study was t0 find the impact 0f civil engineering c0nstructi0n pr0jects 0n envir0nment and s0ci0 ec0n0mic 0f the s0ciety. The questi0nnaires were gathered fr0m resp0ndent and then analysis thr0ugh statistical s0ftware. The analysis sh0wed that civil pr0ject 0f engineering greatly impacts 0n envir0nment and als0 affects the s0ci0 ec0n0mic c0nditi0n 0f the s0ciety. S0 it’s imp0rtant t0 take safety measure bef0re starting any c0nstructi0n pr0ject. G0vernment sh0uld take it seri0us and find the way t0 res0rt the permanent s0luti0n 0f this pr0blem.
One of the major challenges facing developing countries is the provision of adequate power to the citizens. Nigeria, one of such countries is operating a centralized grid system of electrification that is difficult and expensive to expand and would take decades to reach majority of rural areas. There are high numbers of remote villages that need electrification in these countries. Consequently, industrial and economic activities are seriously affected. Harnessing the abundant renewable energy sources would provide an alternative means of electrifying these rural communities. Solar power is one of the best renewable energy technology which is not only cost effective but environment friendly as well. An off-grid photovoltaic system is designed for a rural community located in Balle Local Government Area of Sokoto State, Nigeria. The solar power plant’s site is located at longitude 5°27′, north latitude 13°03′. The energy requirement of the community was found to be about 93.5 kWh/day. The meteorological data of the location was gotten from NASA. PVSYST V6.47 simulation software was used to obtain the simulation result.
The empirical study addressed the problem that raises religio-cultural conflict between rituals in Christianity and African traditional religion (ATR). The influence of ritual symbolism in mburi cia kiama ritual within the Gikuyu ethnic group in Kenya, traditional ritual practice and ordination in Presbyterianism formed the hypotheses of the study. The research approach adapted for the study is mixed methods that is both qualitative and quantitative. The descriptive survey design is used as a research method and requires collection of data through questionnaires, interviews and participatory observation of rituals. Data collecting strategy and its effectiveness in collecting descriptive data is enhanced through source triangulation. The respondents were ordained male Church elders, PCEA male members and the Presbyterian parish ministers and the Gikuyu ritual leaders interviewed were identified through snowballing. The findings were that; certain symbols used in Gikuyu traditional mburi cia kiama rituals to incorporate Gikuyu men into the council of elders can be used in Church rituals by PCEA in ordination of men. There are cases where the Gikuyu mburi cia kiama ritual participants are striving to accommodate Christianity. This is a mark of religious inculturation approach where Christianity is helping to make mburi cia kiama ritual acceptable. There hypothesis testing shows that male Presbyterian elders participation in the Gikuyu traditional ritual influences their spirituality. There is influence in the denotation of physical, mystical and tangibility of the Gikuyu traditional ritual symbolism that influences Presbyterian rituals of ordination of elders. The conclusion is that influence of Gikuyu traditional ritual of mburi cia kiama on Presbyterianism revolves around ritual kinesis as a tool of quantifying ritual efficacy. The study recommends that PCEA carries out a review of the church liturgy by incorporating local based traditional processes that have a cultural touch with the local community in ordination of Church elders. The other conclusion is that PCEA recognizes mburi cia kiama as one of the rites of passage in the Gikuyu culture
Software reliability is the probability that software functions correctly under a given environment and during a specified period of time. The software reliability is highly related to the amount of testing-effort. Also, the reliability of software needs to be carefully assessed and analyzed during the software development process. Furthermore, the prediction of software reliability is also very important for failure free operation by software. To asses, analyze and predict a software reliability we need to develop a software reliability growth model (SRGM). In the earlier research, it is found that the probability of fault detection is not constant. It can be changed at some point of time which is called a change point. The change can take place due to some important factors like the skill of test teams, program size and software testability. This concept motivated to propose a software reliability growth model with testing effort function along with change point. In this paper, we introduced non-homogenous Poisson process software reliability growth model with Burr Type XII testing-effort function and change point.
Competitive strategy is concerned with what an organization does to gain a competitive advantage against the competitors. The commercial banks in Kenya have significantly transformed because of government laws and regulations and stiff competition Banks in Nakuru have many competitors like SACCOs and non-deposit taking institutions. Organizations differ with best way they can perform to win against their competitors. This can be due to differences in their strategic positions and to differences in their competitive abilities. Banks should identify ways of venturing into the market and thereafter customize by guarding and upholding its competitiveness. Competition in the commercial banks has made numerous banks in Kenya to lay down different competitive strategies to improve their organization performance and adjust to the ever changing environment of the businesses. Banks have been growing rapidly for the last few years as stated in the report of Central Bank of Kenya. A tight competition between the commercial banks in Kenya has been observed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the competitive strategies and organization performance of commercial banks in Nakuru Town. The study was guided by resource based view theory, the expectancy disconfirmation theory, the stakeholder theory and the knowledge based view theory. The study was guided by descriptive research design and targeted 34 respondents from different banks which was a census study. The study was guided by questionnaires which were structured and semi-structured. The study used quantitative analyses to analyse the data where it was edited, coded assessed and analysed using both descriptive and inferential where SPSS version 25 was used and the outcome was presented in tables. In descriptive statistics, frequencies, percentages and means were used to analyse the data. Analysis of variance was used to depict the competitive strategies and organization performance. Regression analysis was used to settle on the competitive strategies and organization performance of commercial banks. All the variables were significant because their P- values were less than 0.05. The results specified that banks in Nakuru have fundamentally embraced competitive strategies to compete in the marketplace. The findings discovered that customer service strategy powered strongly organization performance, corporate social responsibility strategy and organization performance was weak and technology strategy and organization performance was strong on commercial banks in Nakuru town. The study concluded that commercial banks should embrace customer satisfaction, customer relationship management and feedback channels to attain organization performance. Also, banks should embrace on all levels of corporate social responsibility and lastly adopt internet banking, agency banking and mobile banking to attain organization performance.
The main purpose of this article is to analyze fatigue strength of wheel-rail under design and the influence of maximum axle load. In this article, the analysis is done under two loading of conditions (i.e., design load and the worst loading scenario). Under these two loading conditions, the various contact fatigue stresses, maximum contact pressure are evaluated at the wheel -rail interface and wheel, rail separately. FEM is used to determine the contact fatigue stresses and maximum pressure. The wheel-rail assembly is modeled in CATIA V5 R19 there after it is imported as an IGS file format into ANSYS workbench software. Extensive review of books, field survey, published journals have carried out to achieve the study. From the analysis, it is found that in both loading situations, the highest equivalent stress is found at the rail section. The outcomes of this work is believed to be useful in rolling fatigue design in the academic community and railway industry at large in terms of providing insight in fatigue design of wheel-rail . Furthermore, it can greatly assist the society to ensure their safety and well-being.
This research topic titled SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND EFFECTS ON THE LEARNER’S ACADEMICS was neccessitated because the researcher was inspired by some observations made in some teacher training schools in the Mfoundi Division in Yaounde III sub-division in the center region of Cameroon. During teaching practice, the researcher discovered that some learners are treated differently, some did not have teaching and learning materials, some were shabby, and others were not given enough concern and attention When asked why these varying treatment was given to learners, varied answers were. With all these answers, the researcher stems to find out if social stratification has an effect on the children’s education. Which takes us to our general research objectives, some specific research objectives alongside which were, to find out if the upper class has an effect on learners academics, to investigate if the middle class has an effect on learners academics, to find out whether the lower class has an effect on the learner’s academics. To make this objectives realistic, the researcher asked a general ans specific research questions were formulated. The general and specific hypotheses were also formulated to guide the study. The Maslow’s hierarchical of needs theory and Marx Webers thoery of social stratification were used. The quantitative and qualitative research approaches were used. Our target population was made up of all Teacher Training Colleges in Yaoundé III Mfoundi Sub-Division. We had access to 50 teachers from 4 TTC. Using a simple random sampling technique, we had a sample of 40 teachers from these 4 TTC. Data was collected using a questionnaire and later presented on tables and charts using descriptive statistic and analyzed on percentages using Microsoft Excel. The hypotheses were later tested using SPSS where we used the Regression Analysis to determine the effect of an independent variable (SOCIAL STRATIFICATION) on the dependent variable (ACADEMICS) and the rule states that if the calculated value is greater than the table value, we reject the null hypothesis or that if the P-value is less than the table value, we do not reject the null hypothesis. From the verifications, two of our operationalized variables were confirmed, that is, the upper class has a negative effect on the learners academics, the lower class has a negative effect on the learners academics. And the middle class has a positive effect on the learners academics. Thanks to the correction of the regression coefficient calculated with the significant level of 0.05. two of our null hypothesis were confirmed and one was rejected. This permitted us to conclude that social stratification has a negative effect on the learners academics. The researcher faced some huddles like the issue of the COVID 19 pandemic. Thus some recommendations were made to teachers, school administrators, government, parents and to other researchers, and suggestions for further reseacher has also been proposed. KEY WORDS; stratification, upper class, middle class, lower class, peasants, bouggousseis, By KEBUYA NATHANIEL NGANCHI 2020
The purpose of this paper is to promote greater understanding of the role institutional factors (including statutory, regulatory, financial, organizational, procedural, and cultural) play in facilitating or impeding the formation and successfully implementation of public-private partnerships and to identify effective strategies for overcoming institutional impediments and facilitating successful PPP development and implementation, based on the experience of a number of successful international PPP projects. To accomplish this purpose PPP project from transport sector have been selected to study and to compare with international case studies. This review paper will help to understand the importance of PPP and also to learn from the west and our past mistakes.
This study investigated the Effects of Cooperative and Individualized Learning Strategies on Students’ Academic Retention in Mathematics in Minna Metropolis, Niger State. The design adopted for the study was a pretest, posttest, post-posttest quasi experimental-control group design. The sample for this study consisted of One hundred and forty seven (147) intact students chosen from three randomly selected senior secondary schools in Minna Metropolis, Niger State. A simple random sampling technique was used to select the three schools and three classes. The three (3) intact classes were assigned to experimental and control groups by balloting. Experimental groups one and two were exposed to cooperative and individualized learning strategies respectively while the control group (group three) was taught same topics with the conventional method. Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT), a 50 – item objective questions was used to collect data for pretest, posttest and post-posttest. A reliability coefficient (r) of 0.86 was obtained using Kuder-Richardson correlation coefficient formula (K-R 21). One research question was raised and one research hypothesis was formulated and tested in this study. The data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that students taught with cooperative learning strategy retained significantly better in mathematics than those taught with conventional method. It was therefore recommended among other things, that mathematics teachers should continuously make effective use of cooperative learning strategy as a new teaching method in teaching mathematics as it guarantees improvement in students’ academic retention in mathematics. KEYWORDS: Retention, Cooperative Learning, Individualized Learning, Conventional/ Traditional Learning, Analysis of Covariance ( ANCOVA).
Rural areas in developing countries are often known by their inadequate transport systems, making it difficult for agricultural produce to be transported to market centres. Okada in rural areas transport people and their goods, from poorly served areas to market centres in cities and towns. Commercial motorcycle services offer a faster transport option to destinations than minibuses or regular taxis. The researcher randomly chose two (2) “okada” stations in the Adawso and Mangoase communities and randomly distributed fifteen (15) questionnaires each to the parks in the Akuapem North Municipal area. Okada business is a novel and a relevant form of employment for the youth. It enables the riders meet their basic needs. The service has received approval from community members too. The service has also been accepted due to the deficiency in existing modes of existing transport systems. The study suggests that the government should create decent job opportunities for the youth and the Municipal Assembly should also organise frequent public education for riders on the adherence to road safety regulations and safe riding principles so that the risks involved will be reduced.
Nigeria has suffered a reduction in cocoa production in recent years, owing to a number of factors including climate. This study examines impact of climate variability on the yield of cocoa crops with the aim to determining effect of weather parameters on crop production. Secondary data that include; rainfall, minimum and maximum temperature and crop yield were obtained from the Meteorology Department and the Department of Produce Services, Ministry of Natural Resources, Akure. The data covered a period of thirteen years (2003-2016). The period selected was based on the availability of both climate and yield data in the study area. Correlation analysis was used to establish inter-relationship among the crop and climate data. Coefficient of Variation (CV) was used to examine the degree of variation in the climate data. Regression analysis established the existing influence of rainfall and temperature on crop yield. Results showed that (i) seasonal change in rainfall and temperature influences crop yield, (ii) the examined climate data have 50% control over the yield (ii) R-value 0.71 indicating strong relationship of climate and cocoa yield. The study recommends adoption of climate copping strategy for farming practices, as well as utilizing early warning of weather forecasting systems for sustainable cocoa production.
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