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The Value Of Government Mandated Location-Based Services In Emergencies In Australia, Anas Aloudat, Katina Michael, Roba Abbas, Mutaz M. Al-Debei Dec 2011

The Value Of Government Mandated Location-Based Services In Emergencies In Australia, Anas Aloudat, Katina Michael, Roba Abbas, Mutaz M. Al-Debei

Dr. Mutaz M. Al-Debei

The adoption of mobile technologies for emergency management has the capacity to save lives. In Australia in February 2009, the Victorian Bushfires claimed 173 lives, the worst peace-time disaster in the nation’s history. The Australian government responded swiftly to the tragedy by going to tender for mobile applications that could be used during emergencies, such as mobile alerts and location services. These applications, which are becoming increasingly accurate with the evolution of positioning techniques, have the ability to deliver personalized information direct to the citizen during crises, complementing traditional broadcasting mediums like television and radio. Indeed governments have a responsibility …


A Review Of International Best Practice In E-Governmentsome Lessons For New Adopters, Deogratias Harorimana Sr Oct 2011

A Review Of International Best Practice In E-Governmentsome Lessons For New Adopters, Deogratias Harorimana Sr

Dr Deogratias Harorimana

Efficient bureaucratic processes as essential to attract and retain investment, as well as promote SME growth. The e_Gov is one of many ways emerging economies have used to streamline public service delivery and create a freindly and conducive atmosphere for business -both MNC and SMEs. This presentation provide an overview of some of the World's most recent case examples on the successful design-plan-implementation of eGov to build a strong basis to attract investment and deliver seamless essential services to Citizens.


A Critical Review Of The Effectiveness Of Fiscal And Monetary Policies In The Pacific Island Countries (Pics) Between 1990-2010, Deogratias Harorimana Mr Oct 2011

A Critical Review Of The Effectiveness Of Fiscal And Monetary Policies In The Pacific Island Countries (Pics) Between 1990-2010, Deogratias Harorimana Mr

Dr Deogratias Harorimana

The purpose of this paper is to critically assess the effectiveness of Fiscal and Monetary Policies in the South Pacific Island Countries. The paper tracks down the economic growth for the last 20 years between 1990-2010, and drawing from key fiscal and monetary policies in place during the time under consideration, as well as specific interventions in the region, we find that: 1) While the South Pacific Island Countries (SPICs) particularly the six major economies (Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, PNG, Samoa, Tonga) pursued fiscal and monetary policies for promoting growth and diversification of their economies, their fiscal policies relied heavily …


Assessment Of Organic And Inorganic Phosphorus In Soils Derived From Cretaceous Sediments And Basement Complex Soils Of Guinea Savannah Of Kogi State, North Central Nigeria, Sunday I. Amhakhian, H H. Isitekhale, Charles I. Oyewole Aug 2011

Assessment Of Organic And Inorganic Phosphorus In Soils Derived From Cretaceous Sediments And Basement Complex Soils Of Guinea Savannah Of Kogi State, North Central Nigeria, Sunday I. Amhakhian, H H. Isitekhale, Charles I. Oyewole

Confluence Journal Environmental Studies (CJES), Kogi State University, Nigeria

A pot experiment was carried out using 20 surface soils (0-15cm depth) in 2008 to assess soil organic phosphorus and some fraction of inorganic phosphorus in other to know their availability in the soils of the studied area and also work have not been done in this areas in respect to organic and in-organic phosphorus. The experiment was conducted using 20 soils 10 from each geological formation (Cretaceous sediments and Basement complex soils), respectively. The mean organic phosphorus of 63.51 mgkg 1 soil was obtained for Cretaceous sediment soils and 158.54 mgkg 1 soil for the basement complex soils respectively. …


Development Of Functional Indices Of Facility Occurrence Towards The Distribution Of Social Services In Lagos Island Nigeria., Augustus O. Atubi Aug 2011

Development Of Functional Indices Of Facility Occurrence Towards The Distribution Of Social Services In Lagos Island Nigeria., Augustus O. Atubi

Confluence Journal Environmental Studies (CJES), Kogi State University, Nigeria

Proper coordination of transport and public facilities provision is vital to any balanced regional development strategy. The central aim of this study, therefore, is to find out what the relationship is between access to the transport network and the provision of functional indices of facility occurrence towards the distribution of social services in Lagos Island, Nigeria. In particular it seeks to find out areas that have below or above average level of facility occurrences relative to the level of accessibility. However, a pair wise correlation matrix of the eleven (11) variables employed in the index construction was carried out. The …


Assessment System Based On Fuzzy Scoring In European Foundation For Quality Management (Efqm) Business Excellence Model, J Dodangeh Aug 2011

Assessment System Based On Fuzzy Scoring In European Foundation For Quality Management (Efqm) Business Excellence Model, J Dodangeh

Javad Dodangeh

There are a few popular business excellence models that provide standard criteria against which an organization can measure its performances. European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) is the most popular one. The organizational self-assessment process is an admissible system in the area of Total Quality Management (TQM). Most specialists concur to the description of self-assessment that is presented by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). However, the current selfassessment methods in EFQM model have some drawbacks and problems which are scoring in these methods influenced by experts’ judgment and thus, are subjective. Furthermore, these methods cannot consider the empirical …


Urban Climate And Challenges Of Tropical Cities, B E. Omogbai Jul 2011

Urban Climate And Challenges Of Tropical Cities, B E. Omogbai

Confluence Journal Environmental Studies (CJES), Kogi State University, Nigeria

This study examines the nature of urban climate, features and the challenges on the developing tropical cities in the 21st century. It argues that the use of principles of urban climate would help in providing comfortable living conditions and problem immune working environments for the inhabitants of tropical cities. The findings reveal that owing to poor environmental planning, inadequate geotechnical landscape surveys prior to the development of urban infrastructures, and non-adherence to the principles of urban climate, challenges of landscape degradation, excessive flooding of the built infrastructures, heat-island effects, and collapse of buildings have emerged. Suggested measures to avert these …


Detecting Changes In Landuse/Cover Of Umuahia, South-Eastern Nigeria Using Remote Sensing And Gis Techniques, Fanan Ujoh, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin, Adams Ndalai Baba Jul 2011

Detecting Changes In Landuse/Cover Of Umuahia, South-Eastern Nigeria Using Remote Sensing And Gis Techniques, Fanan Ujoh, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin, Adams Ndalai Baba

Confluence Journal Environmental Studies (CJES), Kogi State University, Nigeria

Since 1991 when it became the capital city of Abia State, Umuahia has undergone tremendous transformation in its land use and land cover due to rapid urbanization. The main materials employed for this study are a land use map (1991) and Landsat ETM+satellite image (2007) of the study area. These, combined with field survey/checks, were brought into a GIS environment using ILWIS 3.2 Academic image classification software to map the land use/land cover and to estimate the rate of urban expansion and loss of rural land at the peri-urban fringes of Umuahia between 1991 and 2007. The study revealed significant …


Designing Fuzzy Multi Criteria Decision Making Model For Best Selection Of Areas For Improvement In Efqm, J Dodangeh Jun 2011

Designing Fuzzy Multi Criteria Decision Making Model For Best Selection Of Areas For Improvement In Efqm, J Dodangeh

Javad Dodangeh

In a growingly competitive business environment, numerous organizations adopt the total quality management (TQM) approach, to struggle for business excellence. To monitor the progress towards business excellence, thousands of organizations across the world use self-assessment on a regular basis. There are a few popular business excellence models, that provide standard criteria against which an organization can measure its performances. European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) is the most popular ones. The EFQM Excellence Model was introduced at the beginning of 1992, as the framework for assessing organizations for the European Quality Award. It is now the most widely used organizational …


Gender Participation In The Management Of Tricycle Transport For Youth Empowerment And Sustainable Development In Kano State, Nigeria, Nuratu Muhammed Jun 2011

Gender Participation In The Management Of Tricycle Transport For Youth Empowerment And Sustainable Development In Kano State, Nigeria, Nuratu Muhammed

Confluence Journal Environmental Studies (CJES), Kogi State University, Nigeria

The research examined gender participation in the management of tricycle for youth empowerment and sustainable development in Kano state, Nigeria. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select samples of drivers(150), passengers (150) and owners/managers the female tricycle owners fell under this category and they numbered(65).All together a total of 365 samples were selected for the study. Data obtained from the primary data was analyzed using simple statistical techniques and chi square test to ascertain whether there was any significant differences in some of the variables tested. The results of the analysis revealed that the main difference was found in …


Environmental Problems Of Industrialization And Sustainable Development In Nigeria - A Review, Adejoh Iyaji Feb 2011

Environmental Problems Of Industrialization And Sustainable Development In Nigeria - A Review, Adejoh Iyaji

Confluence Journal Environmental Studies (CJES), Kogi State University, Nigeria

The main objective of this paper is to examine the impact of the quest for industrialization on the environment in Nigeria; others include, the identification of the objectives of sustainable development as well as making recommendations that will lead to the much needed sustainable environment both for the present generation and generations yet unborn. The researcher relied principally on secondary sources of data for this paper which is theoretical in approach. Findings revealed the emergence of a host of environmental problems such as air pollution, deforestation, desertification, solid and hazardous waste problems in the wake of the quest for industrialization. …


Data Warehouse As A Backbone For Business Intelligence: Issues And Challenges, Mutaz M. Al-Debei Jan 2011

Data Warehouse As A Backbone For Business Intelligence: Issues And Challenges, Mutaz M. Al-Debei

Dr. Mutaz M. Al-Debei

The aim of this research is to identify and classify the main issues and challenges facing different business organizations when implementing Data Warehouse (DW) technologies. This is highly significant given the theoretical and practical implications and importance of such technologies. It is also important to highlight these challenges given the scarcity of research in this domain despite its value. To determine DW issues and challenges, a qualitative research methodology was followed. A semi-structured interview protocol was used with 17 DW project managers and seniors’ members. The gathered data were analyzed by utilizing a bottom-up content analysis technique where content is …


Nested Circles Boundary Algorithm For Rotated Texture Classification, Mutaz M. Al-Debei, Suzan Awienat, Rana Abu-Laila Jan 2011

Nested Circles Boundary Algorithm For Rotated Texture Classification, Mutaz M. Al-Debei, Suzan Awienat, Rana Abu-Laila

Dr. Mutaz M. Al-Debei

A new simple yet efficient classification algorithm named as Nested Circle Boundary (NCB) is proposed in this study. This algorithm provides features from measuring the average of the sum of boundary pixels for a number of nested circles inside the texture image. It was tested on different 91 rotated texture images for 13 texture classes using Brodatz texture database. The proposed algorithm achieves 100% accuracy when it comes to rotated texture classification. The methodology of NCB algorithm is based on two phases. Phase one mainly measures the features of the 13 texture classes and the original texture images. Then, the …


Business Model Requirements And Challenges In The Mobile Telecommunication Sector, Mutaz M. Al-Debei, David Avison Jan 2011

Business Model Requirements And Challenges In The Mobile Telecommunication Sector, Mutaz M. Al-Debei, David Avison

Dr. Mutaz M. Al-Debei

The telecommunications business is undergoing a critical revolution, driven by innovative technologies, globalization and deregulation. Cellular networks and telecommunications bring radical changes to the way telecom businesses are conducted. Globalization, on the other hand, is tearing down legacy barriers and forcing monopolistic national carriers to compete internationally. Moreover, the noticeable progress of many countries towards deregulation coupled with liberalization is significantly increasing telecom market power and allowing severe competition. The implications of this transition have changed the business rules of the telecom industry. In addition, entrants into the cellular industry have had severe difficulties due to inexistent or weak business …


A Semi-Automatic Ontology Extension Method For Semantic Web Services, Mutaz M. Al-Debei, Mohammad Mourhaf Al Asswad Jan 2011

A Semi-Automatic Ontology Extension Method For Semantic Web Services, Mutaz M. Al-Debei, Mohammad Mourhaf Al Asswad

Dr. Mutaz M. Al-Debei

this paper provides a novel semi-automatic ontology extension method for Semantic Web Services (SWS). This is significant since ontology extension methods those existing in literature mostly deal with semantic description of static Web resources such as text documents. Hence, there is a need for methods that can serve dynamic Web resources such as SWS. The developed method in this paper avoids redundancy and respects consistency so as to assure high quality of the resulting shared ontologies.


Adaptive Responses To Flooding Incidents In Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria, Habiba I. Jimoh, Kayode A. Iroye Jan 2011

Adaptive Responses To Flooding Incidents In Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria, Habiba I. Jimoh, Kayode A. Iroye

Confluence Journal Environmental Studies (CJES), Kogi State University, Nigeria

Incidents of floods which are mainly caused by changes in landuse is fast becoming a city life experience in Ilorin as in most urban centres in Nigeria causing untold hardships and sometimes loss of lives. This extreme hydro-meteorological event is also being exacerbated by climate change which thus calls for adaptive response by residents towards reducing its risks, hence this study. Data used were generated from direct field measurements and questionnaire administration. Descriptive statistics and cross tabulations were used in analyzing the data. Results obtained indicate that most respondents use a wide range of non-structural adaptive response to flood. The …


An Assessment Of Socio-Economic Impact Of Waste Scavenging As A Means Of Poverty Alleviation In Gwagwalada, Abuja., John Yakubu Magaji, Samuel Panse Dakyes Jan 2011

An Assessment Of Socio-Economic Impact Of Waste Scavenging As A Means Of Poverty Alleviation In Gwagwalada, Abuja., John Yakubu Magaji, Samuel Panse Dakyes

Confluence Journal Environmental Studies (CJES), Kogi State University, Nigeria

Waste scavengers are usually perceived as being among the poor, and scavenging is considered a marginal activity. They tend to have low incomes, but can obtained decent earning when they are not exploited by middlemen. This study was conducted in Gwagwalada town with the aim of assessing the socio-economic impact of scavenging on the people. A structured questionnaire was constructed to capture the demographic characteristics of the scavengers, their experiences, types of items scavenged, the economic gains and the challenges being faced. The target pollution is waste scavengers and a random sampling technique was adopted in selecting the respondents for …


Scoring Rules And Decision Analysis Education, J. Eric Bickel Jan 2011

Scoring Rules And Decision Analysis Education, J. Eric Bickel

Eric Bickel

Experiential learning is perhaps the most effective way to teach. One example is the scoring procedure used for exams in some decision analysis programs. Under this grading scheme, students take a multiple-choice exam, but rather than simply marking which answer they think is correct, they must assign a probability to each possible answer. The exam is then scored with a special scoring rule, under which students’ best strategy is to avoid guessing and instead assign their true beliefs. Such a scoring function is known as a strictly proper scoring rule. In this paper, we discuss several different scoring rules and …


Discretization, Simulation, And Swanson’S (Inaccurate) Mean, J. Eric Bickel Jan 2011

Discretization, Simulation, And Swanson’S (Inaccurate) Mean, J. Eric Bickel

Eric Bickel

Swanson’s Mean (SM) is heavily used within the oil and gas industry to approximate continuous probability distributions such as the lognormal. In this paper, we document the errors induced by this practice, which, as we show, has no theoretical justification for any distribution other than the normal. In parallel, we review methods to discretize continuous distributions and compare these methods to Monte Carlo simulation. We demonstrate that the best discretization methods have an accuracy equivalent to that of tens of thousands of Monte Carlo trials.


Comparing Nws Pop Forecasts To Third-Party Providers, J. Eric Bickel, Eric Floehr, Seong Dae Kim Jan 2011

Comparing Nws Pop Forecasts To Third-Party Providers, J. Eric Bickel, Eric Floehr, Seong Dae Kim

Eric Bickel

In this paper, the authors verify probability of precipitation (PoP) forecasts provided by the National Weather Service (NWS), The Weather Channel (TWC), and CustomWeather (CW). The n-day-ahead forecasts, where n ranges from 1 to 3 for the NWS, from 1 to 9 for TWC, and from 1 to 14 for CW, are analyzed. The dataset includes almost 13 million PoP forecasts, or about 500 000 PoPs per provider per day of lead time. Data were collected over a 2-yr period (1 November 2008–31 October 2010) at 734 observation stations across the contiguous United States. In addition to verifying these PoP …