Volume 10, Issue 4, April 2022 Edition - GSJ Journal Publication

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UTILIZATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS AS MARKETING STRATEGY IN RETAIL BUSINESSES IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIA []


Abstract Social media marketing is a process of gaining customers’ attention and traffic for a business aimed at an increased brand presence through the Internet. Social media marketing enhances brand awareness in addition to customer retention and satisfaction. Social media enables marketers to interact with customers, friends, families and groups. It helps in search engine optimization and increases rankings of company websites. It was in the light of the cardinal aim of social media that this study investigated the utilization of social platforms as a marketing strategy in retail businesses in the South East States of Nigeria. The study was guided by five specific purposes which hinged on determination of the acceptability, accessibility, effectiveness, efficiency, as well as preference of utilization of social media platforms as a marketing strategy in retail businesses in the South East States of Nigeria. The questionnaire was administered by the researcher, with the help of five research assistants. A population of 100 shop owners and customers obtained from internet was used for the study. There was no sample as the entire population was used since it was manageable. The research questions were answered on individual basis using the mean and standard deviation statistics, while the t-test and ANOVA statistics were used to test the null hypotheses. The study found among others that social media platforms that were generally accepted for retail businesses in the South East States of Nigeria included: WhatsApp, imo, google, LinkedIn, youtube, yahoo, Facebook, Reuters, 2go, and BBM. It was also found that the social media platforms were efficient, very effective, easily accessible and preferred platforms for retail marketing in the South East States of Nigeria in online businesses. There was no significant difference in the mean responses of shop owners and customers in location in the South East States of Nigeria. The study recommended that Business Education Departments in institutions of higher learning in Eastern States of Nigeria should organize workshops and seminars from time to time for private and public business organization operators and retail customers to abreast them with goings on in internet marketing via social media. . KEY WORDS: Social media, utilization, marketing, platforms

Effect of ensiling period on the proximate compositions of ensiled blends of wet cassava peels meal and palm kernel meal []


Abstract In many developing countries like Nigeria, complementary foods are usually made from plant sources with high anti-nutrient contents using less modification techniques to increase its nutrient density. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of ensiling a blend of wet cassava peels meal and palm kernel meal on the proximate compositions of the composite meal. Wet cassava peels were ground into meal using an attrition mill and mixed with palm kernel meal in a ratio of 7:3. The cassava peel-based composite meal was then divided into 4 batches. The first batch was immediately sundried while the second, third and fourth batches were ensiled in black polythene bags, under room temperature for 7, 14 and 21 days, respectively and sundried for 3-4 hours. Samples of the meals were analyzed for their proximate compositions. The 14 days ensiled composite meal had significantly (p<0.05) lower moisture (6.49%) and higher dry matter (93.51%) and crude protein values than the non-ensiled meal. Ensiling significantly (p<0.05) increased the fat content at 7 days but decreased the values at 14 and 21days when compared with the non-ensiled meal. The crude fibre values were significantly (p<0.05) decreased in the 7 and 14 days ensiled meals while the ash content decreased with increasing ensiling period when compared with the non-ensiled meal. The calculated energy value increased in the 7days ensiled sample but decreased with increasing ensiling periods. It is concluded that nutritionally improved and energy rich composite meals can be prepared from a blend of wet cassava peels meal and palm kernel meal and that ensiling the blend for 14 days encouraged higher dry matter and crude protein values. Keywords: Composite meal, Blending, Ensiling, Cassava peels, Palm kernel meal, Proximate composition.

Sign Language Recognigition System Using CNN And Neural Networks. []


To talk with a person with hearing or listening disability is always a major challenge. Hand gesture recognition system provides us an innovative, natural, user friendly way of interaction with the computer which is more familiar to human beings. Gesture recognition has a wide area of application including human machine interaction, sign language, immersive game technology etc. By keeping in mind the similarities of human hand shape, it aims to present a real time system for hand gesture recognition on the basis of detection of some meaningful shape based features. Sign language has indelibly become the ultimate panacea and is a very powerful tool for individuals with hearing and speech disability to communicate their feelings and opinions to the world. It makes the integration process between them and others smooth and less complex. However, the invention of sign language alone is not enough. The sign gestures often get mixed and confused for someone who has never learnt it or knows it in a different language. However, this communication gap which has existed for years can now be narrowed with the introduction of various techniques to automate the detection of sign gestures.In this study, the user must be able to capture images of the hand gesture using a webcam and the system shall predict and display the name of the captured image.The region of interest which, in this case is segmented hand gestures. It makes use of the Convolutional Neural Network(CNN) for training and to classify the images.

An Annotated Bibliography of Rape in Nigerian from 2017 to 2021 []


AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RAPE IN NIGERIA, FROM 2017-2021 BY OBIEKWE, OBIOMA LOVETH Festus Aghagbo Library, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra state obiekweobioma@yahoo.com 08064327755 ABTRACT This study is limited to notable rape cases in Nigeria from 2017-2021. It focuses on the rape on a girl-child and women which occurs within this period. This Billiography is to bring to the lime light rape cases in Nigeria from 2017-2021 The rate of reporting case of rape is increasing. Worldwide, sexual violence, including rape, is primarily committed by males against females. Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other form of sexual penetration carried out against a person without the person’s consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person who is incapable of giving valid consent, such as one who is unconscious, incapacities, has an intellectual disability, or is below legal age of consent. This bibliography shows the level of rape cases in Nigeria between 2017 and 2021, shows different victims of rape, identify courses of rape in Nigeria, Notable Cases of Rape in Nigeria and How rape occur in Nigeria.

EFFECTIVE USE OF NATURAL LIGHTING STRATEGY IN MUSEUM []


ABSTRACT Lighting design is important in museums since it enhances the whole experience.” (Lowe,43, 2009). A museum is a location to learn about the past, present, and future of creativity, as well as history. In fostering contact between humans and museum items in a defined space, lighting plays a significant role." Human engagement in a location requires enough lighting. From the concept and shape of the building to the materials and method of construction, museum architecture is all about designing a structure that tells a ‘story.' Museums exist primarily for the purposes of preservation and exhibition; as a major source of art conservation and preservation of the country's cultural heritage, they have a significant impact on the country's cultural economy and have a significant meaning for social integration within socio-cultural and socio-economic contexts. All of these factors, as well as others, are influenced by how people move through and see exhibition spaces from one point to the next, which necessitates effective lighting to guide and direct them. To further address this issue of visual tour around the museum, effective lighting through natural lighting (daylight openings) has been implemented to improve the design, guiding tour, and exhibition in the museum, which will aid in remembering and presenting the story of Rivers state in relation to the nation at large. This study paper examines the impact of natural light on two- and three-dimensional objects, as well as the ideal lighting approach for each. In addition, the behavior of natural lighting on walls, ceilings, and floors was studied in relation to the materials employed. Keywords: Museum, Architecture, Effective lighting design, Natural lighting and Daylighting.

Overall Equipment Effectiveness in Sri Lankan Palm Oil Industry: A Case Study of ABZ Company []


According to the careful observation of annual reports of ABZ Company, it reveals that maintenance cost of ABZ has been increased gradually over the last few years due to inadequate performance in the process. The main purpose of this research is to find out the reasons for the low performance in ABZ. Performance measurement has a great significance for the top managers in effective decision-making process to evaluate the progress of their predetermined set goals. Therefore, this research which is based on Overall Equipment Effectiveness in Sri Lankan Palm Oil Industry, has highlighted mainly four objectives such as measurement of the Overall Equipment Effectiveness of ABZ Company, identification of the factors affecting Overall Equipment Effectiveness of ABZ Company, comparison of the level of Overall Equipment Effectiveness of ABZ Company with other world standard Palm Oil Mills and finally finding the solutions to improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness of ABZ Company. All the relevant data to calculate OEE was collected for the last two years. Furthermore, the secondary data of other best world-class Malaysian palm oil mills was also collected by contacting mill managers in Johor, Kedah, Melaka, Pahang, and Sabah. By the calculation of availability, performance, and quality rate, OEE measurement was calculated. According to the calculation, availability was high from January to April in off-peak months. However, due to mill breakdown, the availability ratio was low during peak season, from May to December. The main reasons were the insufficient capacity of the mill and idle machines in the process because of bottleneck operations. Minitab 17.0 was used to analyze the calculated results statistically. OEE values were high in January, February, March, and April Months. It reveals that OEE values are high in the off-season period, while the rest of the time they are low due to insufficient capacity in the mill. The quality rate had a mean value of 0.9311 while the availability rate and performance rate had a mean of 0.7963 and 0.7347, respectively. From the analysis, it shows that availability and quality rates are significant in predicting the Overall Equipment Effectiveness, whereas performance is not. The correlation coefficient values of availability rate, performance rate and, quality rate for the effect of OEE with reference to other parameters were 0.979, -0.042, and 0.907, respectively. ABZ has the lowest availability and performance factors in comparison to other mills. Hence, it should be improved in performance rate in order to enhance the OEE in ABZ. OEE score of 85% is considered world-class for discrete manufacturers. Sterilizer station is the bottleneck of Crude Palm Oil production line in ABZ, which can be eliminated by the addition of another parallel sterilizer. In the kernel oil processing line, kernel heating is the bottleneck which can be eliminated by the addition of another parallel kernel heating tank. In the kernel meal process, by using a new advanced kernel meal bagging technique, the bottleneck can be eliminated. Maintaining good manufacturing practices within the premises, reduction of downtimes of the mill, increasing the capacity and implementing tools like Total Productive Maintenance and Lean, ABZ can enhance their OEE and the productivity. Keywords: Overall Equipment Effectiveness, Correlation coefficient, Total Productive Maintenance, Lean

Advocacy Campaigns: Panacea for Repositioning the Social and Policy Structure of Adult Education in Nigeria. []


ABSTRACT The achievement of social, economic and political development in a country depends to a large extent on the presence of a skilled and informed adult population. The relevance of adult education as a tool for achieving the urgent need for a skilled and functional adult population has been advanced in recent times. This implies that adult education is an imperative, not only for the effective functioning of individuals at the workplace and in their own communities, but also for the renewal of society itself. Adult education should be seen by all stakeholders as a strategic goal for nation building. in spite of these clear social benefits accruing from adult education it is observed that in Nigeria, adult education still operate mainly as disparate, piecemeal activities that are not integrated into a coherent, purposeful strategy in pursuit of a national development vision. Hence, the emphasis on advocacy campaigns as a strategy for promoting changes in awareness, attitudes and beliefs in other to strengthen public and political opinion for the development of adult education and to further strengthen the social and policy structure of adult education in Nigeria.

The impact of white-garment churches on the delivery of public services in Zimbabwe. []


Churches play a pivotal role in the development of communities. In both the pre- and post-independence Zimbabwean history, churches contributed significantly to the development of communities and livelihoods. This was done through assisting in the provision of public services such as health and education by constructing hospitals, schools and tertiary institutions. However, there has been a significant increase on reports whereby faith-based white-garment communities commonly referred to as the Apostolic sect or ‘Vapositori’ in Zimbabwe fail to adhere to some government policies on the basis of their values and beliefs (Musoni, 2019). The Apostolic sect fall under the African Indigenous Churches (AICs) category (Machingura and Musoni, 2020; Musoni, 2019). The study sought to establish how the activities of these faith-based institutions herein referred to as the white-garment churches influence the delivery of public services in Zimbabwe. A cross-sectional survey of the ‘Vapositori’ was conducted in Zimbabwe’s Murewa district in Mashonaland East province using both structured and semi-structured self-administered questionnaires. A sample size of 300 ‘Vapositori’ was drawn from a population of approximately 100 000 church members. Questionnaires were randomly distributed in person according to the services sought by clients namely: birth registration, national identity card registration and death registration. The overall response rate was 95.3%. The study established that members of the apostolic sect had a strict adherence to their religious doctrines, some of which include not seeking medical assistance. Further findings revealed that in the ‘Vapositori’ polygamous marriage set-ups, the wives and children had no civil documents. Conclusion drawn from these findings was that the white-garment churches doctrine do not uphold government policies thereby negatively impacting on service delivery. The study therefore recommends that the leadership of white-garment churches in Zimbabwe should embrace government policies in their church doctrines and enlighten these to their church members. Key words White-garment churches, public services, service delivery.

UNDERSTANDING THE CLIMATE OF PORT HARCOURT FOR ENERGY-EFFICIENT AND SUSTAINABLE BUILDING DESIGN []


The objective of this study is to understand the role of the climate of a place in creating environmentally friendly, energy-efficient buildings, designed to effectively manage dwindling natural resources. This entails understanding climate as a prerequisite in building design for a better outlook on how to harness natural energy like the sun and wind and using materials that, in their manufacture, application and disposal, do the least possible damage to nature`s `free resources`; water, ground and air. To do this, a study of the climate of Port Harcourt, Rivers State has been carried out with climatic data sourced from yr.no a research organisation owned and controlled by the joint service of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation with weather stations in Port Harcourt and data from World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) to understand weather patterns. This, in turn, gives suggestions for successful natural resource management in building design and the process of integrating with nature. Ecological replacement schemes or ecology integration employing traditional concepts of natural landform integration, natural orientation, and effective methods of harnessing climatic resources such as the sun and winds, as well as a breakdown of the type of building material selection and application, and sustainable construction methods to employ to suit geographical and climatic conditions. All of these topics are covered in this study. By the end of the study, we will have a better understanding of how to effectively incorporate the climate of Port Harcourt into designs and construction in order to achieve sustainability, energy efficiency, and, most importantly, an ecological and healthy living environment free of waste and with minimal environmental pollution.

Knowledge, attitude, and practice towards prevention of hepatitis B infection among healthcare workers in Nyagatare Hospital, Nyagatare District, Rwanda. []


Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is the most important public health problem worldwide. Health care workers (HCWS) are at risk of contracting the hepatitis B virus if prevention measures are inadequate. For this reason, the idea was born to study the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of health care workers regarding hepatitis B virus prevention, as well as the factors associated with health care workers' HBV prevention practices. The study was a cross-sectional study conducted in a public hospital in Nyagatare district in the Eastern Province of Rwanda. Stratified random sampling was used to select respondents and strata were calculated according to the number of HCWs from each ward. Questionnaires were used for the strata consisting of doctors, dentists, nurses, and laboratory staff at Nyagatare Hospital. The target population was 180, of which 124 were sampled according to the calculated shifts from the different health personnel departments. Data were presented in tables and figures where necessary. Mount Kenya University and Nyagatare Hospital had given their consent before the start of the study. The demographic characteristics showed that the majority of the respondents (40.3%) were in the age group of 21-30 years, (57.3%) were married, (48.4%) had work experience of 10-19 years, while the proportion of males and females was 50% each. The results of this study showed that 81.5% of the respondents had good knowledge of HBV prevention, the majority of 81.5% had a positive attitude toward HBV prevention, and 60.5% of the respondents had adequate practice on HBV prevention. There was a statistically significant association between the level of knowledge and practice of HBV prevention (p < 0.02). Respondents with poor knowledge [OR =0.25;95%CI=0.095-0.671; PV=0.02] were more likely to have poor practices. There is no statistically significant association between respondents' attitudes and practices on HBV prevention 78.3% [OR =0.075;95%CI=0.77-1.79PV=0.24.] Most of the HCWS in Nyagatare hospital were aware of HBV infection. But a significant proportion of respondents did not have adequate practices despite their good knowledge and positive attitude towards HBV prevention. 63.5% do not report needlestick injuries and do not wash their hands before and after procedures. The study reveals a knowledge gap in post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). Further workplace exposure prevention strategies, curricula on HBV infection, and PEP are needed.

THE EFFECT OF FINANCIAL STRUCTURE ON THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF COMMERCIAL BANKS IN KENYA []


Corporate failure is frequently linked to a company's financing strategy. Corporate entities all over the world are faced with the problem of determining the appropriate finance that will boost the value of the entity and maximize the wealth of the shareholders. Firms need funds for their operational day to day activities and also for undertaking viable projects. Hence, capital either debt or equity capital raised from investors is inevitable. Internal finance, which is equity, and external finance, which is debt are the two main forms of finance that firms can employ to supply the required funds. Most companies use a mix of equity and debt which form the capital structure. Commercial banks on the other hand, have access to an extra financing source which is deposits. Deposits form a big portion of funds available to commercial banks for operational activities. The different research initiatives done to study the relationship between capital structure and performance have yielded inconsistent results. How a firm’s financial structure affects performance is still a question which needs to be critically addressed in research. The study's overall goal was to determine the effect of the financial structure on commercial bank financial performance. Secondary data was collected from commercial banks financial statements over ten-year period, from 2010 to 2019. The Hausman and the Breusch-Pagan lagrangian multiplier test were used to choose the appropriate model that would produce accurate estimations for the research. The Fixed effect regression model was selected to analyse the panel data which consisted of both time series and cross section data. Financial performance was the dependent variable and was measured using Return on Assets (ROA). The independent variables were deposits, debt and equity respectively. The results of the study showed that the model was significant with the independent (predictors) variables accounting for 68.41 per cent of the variance on the financial performance. The most favorable significant effect on financial performance was equity variable, which was followed by deposits. Debt had a modest but non-significant negative effect on performance. From the study’s findings it was noted that commercial banks in Kenya had high amounts of debt. This affected their financial performance negatively. As a result, the study recommends that commercial banks should increase their efforts to rely more on internally produced funds as a means of finance while maintaining a healthy equity-to-debt ratio. Furthermore, commercial bank’s management should ensure that the optimum capital structure is always engaged by altering the debt-equity ratio at intervals. It is also recommended that shareholders should be involved when additional funds are required in making financing decisions. This will ensure quality decisions are made by comparing the implicit costs and benefits of issuing additional shares or obtaining debt finance. Finally, the study recommends to bank management that they should look for ways to attract more deposits, especially deposits for longer periods of time e.g. fixed deposit accounts. This will reduce their over reliance on external debt capital which is more costly. The available deposited funds can be used by commercial banks to finance their investment activities. In addition, the funds can also be issued as loans to customers. Hence, the bank can generate loan interest income which forms a significant portion of commercial banks income. This will in effect enhance their financial performance.

Mass media, communication policy and national security []


Mass media are tools of communication for national security when policy markers exploit them for national peace proactively. The recent upsurge of Nigerian insecurity escalated by fulanization of Nigeria, politicization of security system and the discriminatory handling of the bandits and killer herders called for the attention of Nigeria policy makers to amend communication policy to reflect the present national security. This paper is driven by social responsibility theory of mass communication, using descriptive analysis and the findings show that political stakeholders are the major policy makers and must be seen performing positive role by creating peaceful nation; addressing security issues without partiality. Issues such as infrastructural failures on highways, cyber crimes, bandits, political killing, Fulani herders’ atrocities and others should be addressed firmly and promptly through communication policy and fearless media reporting. Hence; new policy on highway maintenance should be revisited, political actors should drop parochial agenda against Nigerian citizens, investigative journalism and fearless reporting should continue to flourish; and above all, the machineries of national security should be overhauled to give peace a chance in Nigeria.

A survey on delay time in smart grid communication networks using D2D []


Delay time defines as the time between when the state occurred and when it was acted upon by an application. Each application has its own latency requirements depending upon the kind of system response it is dealing with. Among the other delays, communication delay also adds to the latency and needs to be minimized. The communication delays on the network are comprised of transmission delays, propagation delays, processing delays, and queuing delays. Each of these delays must be looked into to understand the complete behavior of the communication network for a given network. The network here represents the smart grid communication networks, which will be a network of networks that may use different communications technology or just one, allowing two￾way, reliable, and secure communications. It will be formed of millions of smart meters at customer premises connected to a Few thousand substations which in turn will be connected to fewer control centers and power plants. In this paper numbers of previous studies was provided of such delay time problems in the smart grid networks. Also delay time in smart grid treated in different position not only in the communication networks and that making conflict in concept sometimes with delay time over all smart grids.

Problématique de la prise en charge de la malnutrition aigue sévère avec complications des enfants de 0 à 59 mois à Bamako, cas du centre de santé de référence de la Commune VI []


Cette étude avait pour objectif la prise en charge des Malnutrition Aigüe Sévère (MAS) à l’Unité de Récupération et d’Education Nutritionnelle Intensive (URENI). Pour la mener à bien, nous avons fait le suivi (depuis leur admission jusqu’à leur sortie) de tous les MAS avec complications dépistés et hospitalisés à l’URENI du Centre de Santé de Référence de la Commune VI durant la période du 30 Avril au 31 Juillet 2016. L’étude a concerné 136 patients et les résultats ont montré que 90,44% des MAS ont été traités avec succès, 3,68% des MAS sont décédés, 3,68% des MAS ont été transférés pour raison médicale et 2,20% des MAS ont abandonnés le traitement. Les MAS admis en mode directe ont été traités avec succès à hauteur de 89,08% contre 100% des MAS admis en mode référence. Un meilleur résultat aurait pu être enregistré surement avec un dépistage assez prompt et une prise en charge sans rupture d’intrants avec un appui rapproché des médecins.

Water Budgeting in the Jhelum River Basin: Application of Hydro-Economic Water Evaluation and Planning Model []


In the world water demand is increasing due to climate change, high population growth rate, high urbanization, food insecurity, high energy demand, changing living standards of the society and other factors. The main aim of economics is to maximize net returns from limited natural resources by optimizing the available resource to satisfy needs and wants. Nowadays, doing so is also a difficult task due to the lack of strong integration and holistic approach that influence the process. However, the best way of optimizing water demand and increasing water supply is through integrated water resource management measures that bring sustainability to water resource by challenging water-based conflicts and problems. The present study emphases on Jhelum River basin of the Kashmir valley of India to assess the existing and future water demand and supply situation along with generating suitable policy scenario metrics for integrated water resource management. Water Evaluation and Planning Model was used for analysing the data. The model was established by creating 2020 as the current account year and 2050 as future scenario year. Three major scenarios for future water demand and supply prediction were created as reference, external driving factor and management scenarios. The result of the study shown current water demand of 3249.5 million cubic meters for all demand sectors, whereby demand for domestic, livestock and poultry; and industrial and commercial sectors satisfied fully and agricultural sector has shown unmet water demand of 271.23 million cubic meters by 2020. In 2050 the water demand increase in all scenarios whereas the unmet water demand decreases by reference and management scenarios and increase by external driving factor scenarios. Depending on the result obtained policy implications and water allocation strategies were proposed on the enhancing of water supply, managing water demand and considering cross-border water resource management problems.

SELF EFFICACY AND SELF EMPLOYMENT INTENTIONS OF RECENT GRADUATES IN NIGERIA. []


This research examines self-efficacy and self-employment intentions among recent graduates in Nigeria to find out the efficiency and effectiveness of Entrepreneurship education, Entrepreneurial training and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) SAED programs on recent graduates observing their compulsory one year service during 2021/2022. The objective of the study is to investigate the impact of Entrepreneurial self-efficacy on self-employment intentions among graduates in Nigeria. and understand the effect of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial self-efficacy among Nigeria graduates. The research design adopted for the study is Survey research design which entailed the administration of questionnaires to respondents through the use of random sample in which 536 questionnaires were distributed electronically through Email and various NYSC WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages. The result from hypothesis one shows the R Square to be 15.3% which indicates that entrepreneurship education contributes to development of entrepreneurial self-efficacy among graduates. Also, the F-statistic of 97.48 was obtained which was significant since the p-value is less than 0.05. The result from the coefficient table shows that 7% variation in entrepreneurial education leads to 57% variation in entrepreneurial self-efficacy development among graduates. This affirms a positive relationship between the variables. The result from hypothesis two shows the R Square to be 0.438. This revealed that entrepreneurial self-efficacy accounted for 43.8% of the variance in the self-employment intentions among graduates, F-statistic of 416.094 was obtained. This is significant as the p-value is less than 0.05. Entrepreneurship education has been confirmed to have contributed to the Entrepreneurial self-efficacy of recent graduates which in turn hone their self-employment intentions. In view of this, the researchers conclude that the place and the role of entrepreneurship education can never be overemphasized as education, among other factors shape and sharpen entrepreneurial self-efficacy. High level of entrepreneurial self-efficacy boosts self-employment intentions and helps grow the economy.

SHALE ORGANIC RICHNESS AND SEDIMENTATION OF ABAJI SECTION, PATTI FORMATION OF THE SOUTHERN BIDA BASIN []


Outcrops of Patti Formation occur between Lokoja and Abaji. The exposures encountered during the mapping exercise consist of sandstone beds, siltstones, mudstones, claystones and carbonaceous shale with lateral persistence. The outcrop of Abaji is full of clastic sediments with variations in primary structures and textural characteristics, which are indicators of the mode of deposition and depositional environment. The diagnostic structures observed on exposures are hummocky, herringbone, which indicate sediment deposition in the intertidal environment. Samples taken for grain size analysis gives the mean value ranging from 0.4ϕ to 2.63ϕ (average mean value of 1.4ϕ), which indicates that the sediments are medium grained, while the standard deviation range from 0.59ϕ to 1.40ϕ (total average value of 0.93ϕ), indicating moderately sorted sand. Skewness value ranges from -0.55ϕ to 0.16ϕ (with average of -0.16ϕ), this indicates coarse skewed while its distribution mesokurtic (kurtosis ranges from 0.94ϕ to 2.8ϕ averaging 1.09ϕ). The histogram plot shows that the sediments are unimodal, bimodal and polymodal which indicates that sediments are derived from one source (unimodal) and more than one parent material (bimodal, polymodal). The average soluble organic matter concentration SOM (0.44wt. %) shows fair organic matter content for the generation of hydrocarbon. The occurrence of primary structures such has hummocky, herringbone indicates sediment deposition in intertidal environment.

Factors affecting technical efficiency of Smallholder coffee growing Farmers in Jimma zone: South west Ethiopia: A Stochastic Frontier Approach []


In Ethiopia, about 15 percent of the country,s population directly or indirectly deriving their livelihoods from coffee. It plays a central role in Ethiopia,s economy and as the country,s leading export commodity generating about 25% of Ethiopia,s total export earnings. Small holder farmers, account for more than 95% of the total coffee produced in Ethiopia, but the productivity remains very low. This study aims to analysis the level of technical efficiency of coffee producing smallholder farmers. It was conducted using a cross-sectional data collected in 2019 production year from a total sample size of 149 households in Jimma zone of oromia regional state. The aim of the study was to examine the level of technical efficiency of smallholder farmers and identify the factors that influence technical efficiency in coffee production. The maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) result shows that farm size under coffee cultivation and labour force are the major factors that are associated with coffee output. The result of the study revealed that the mean technical efficiency was 74.27 percent, which indicates that an average smallholder farmer was producing about 25.73% below a frontier production level. The relative deviation of output from the frontier level due to inefficiency (value of gamma(γ)) was 0.999, which implied that about 99.9% of the variation in matured coffee output was due to technical inefficiency, while the remaining 0.1% variation was due to random noise. The Farmer specific efficiency factors like educational level of household head, total land holding, weeding frequency , and extension affected technical efficiency significantly and positively while total livestock unit and Off-farm income had affected technical efficiency significantly and negatively. Therefore, provision institutional service on coffee field management that would improve the production efficiency of smallholder farmers should be given priority.

Public spaces in Healthcare Facilities ;More than a lobby []


More than a lobby is a concept that shows the relevance of a public space. In addition to their aesthetics and function, public spaces in hospitals play a critical role in patient happiness and experience. The journal focuses on how spatial characteristics like accessibility, visibility, proximity, and points of egress influence people's behavior and interactions in hospital public spaces. The detailed analysis of three hospitals as well as criteria supporting the design of circulation areas, arrival and entrance has been carried out. Others are the first point of welcome, reception and the hospital interaction.More than a lobby; emphasizes on the quality of space as experienced by the end user as well as the aesthetics comfort it provides.