Search results

The results of trial experiments carried out with a computer simulation model of total reflection X‐ray fluorescence, TXRF system to determine optimum conditions for detecting certain elements of interest under various analytical conditions in a given ten‐element standard sample is presented in this paper. Results of these trial experiments show that the detectability of elements improved with increasing applied voltages up to about 43kV (for a Molybdenum anode TXRF spectrometer) and atomic number of elements. Variation of geometry such as the glancing incidence angle of the excitation beam reflected slight increase in minimum detection limit, MDL values as the angle of incidence is reduced from an optimum value of 1.6mradian to 1.0mradian. The nature of the sample support was observed to affect the detectability of the elements as good detection limits were obtained if gold is used as sample holder..

The study was conducted to investigate the economics of dry season vegetable production in Ogun state, Nigeria.

Descriptive statistics, budgetary technique and regression analysis model were used to analyze the data collected from 120 respondents using multistage sampling technique.

Descriptive statistics showed that while the mean age of the farmers was 62.1 ± 38.78, the mean farming experience was 17.3 ± 12.84. Majority (56.7%) of the respondents were uneducated. Vegetable enterprise in the area was male-dominant. The result of budgetary analysis revealed that the average net and total income were ₦ 55,405.29 and ₦ 131,514, respectively. While the average total variable cost was ₦ 64,767.29, average total cost was ₦ 76,108.70. Benefit cost ratio and rate of returns were 1.73 and 0.73, respectively. The regression analysis revealed that revenue from vegetable production in the study area was influenced by farm size, seed quantity, farming experience, quantity of labor and fertilizer used.

It is therefore imperative for policymakers to encourage dry season vegetable farming as a viable enterprise option for the unemployed and upcoming entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, the government should design and implement policies that would improve access to land, labor, quality seed, water and fertilizers.

The study adds to the growing body of literature on inherent prospects for labor and entrepreneurs as regards the opportunities latent in dry season farming activities.

The study aimed to focus on the effect of the processing parameters on the physicochemical properties of oil from roselle seed.

Fine and coarse samples of the ground roselle seeds were conditioned to the moisture contents of 4.4‐10.4 per cent and 5.14‐11.14 per cent. Oil was expressed at applied pressures of 15‐37.5 MPa with 7.5 MPa interval using hydraulic oil extractor for between 10‐40 min. at increment of 10 min. and at the heating temperatures of 80, 90, 100 and 110°C over a period of 15‐30 min. at an increment of 5 min. All the physicochemical properties were determined using AOAC and AOCS methods [AOAC, 1984; AOCS, 1994].

The free fatty acid, peroxide values and the colour intensity of the oil were affected by the processing parameters; while saponification value, viscosity, specific gravity, refractive index and the iodine value of the oil were not affected by the expression parameters.

Processing parameters were found to affect the quality attributes of free fatty acid, peroxide values and the colour intensity of the oil.

Urban crop farming as a variant of urban agriculture is a rising phenomenon in food and income generation especially in the developing countries. It is useful in fresh food supplies, recycling of urban wastes and poverty alleviation. However, as an informal activity, the greatest challenge it faces is accessibility to land. This tends to undermine the numerous contributions it can make to a city's development in terms of social, economic and environmental developments particularly its influence on climate change, fresh air supply and healthy living of the teaming urban population. There is therefore an urgent need to examine the potentials and risks associated with urban crop farming in order to identify factors that can enhance its productivity and economic viability by improving practitioners’ access to land. The purpose of the paper is to do this.

The study therefore conceptualized that land accessibility among urban crop farmers can be predicted from identified constraint variables. Respondents in some locations where urban crop farming was found to be thriving well within the Lagos Metropolis were randomly selected and administered with structured questionnaires.

The data collected were analyzed using factor (principal component) analysis which enabled the construction of a constraints analysis equation or regression equation.

The study identified five constraints affecting land accessibility among urban crop farmers with the most critical factors being affordability and security of tenure.

In this study, an investigation into the asymmetric impacts of crime rate on total factor productivity (TFP) in Nigeria is conducted.

The study employs linear and non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) modelling techniques to analyse Nigerian data spanning over a period of 1986–2017. In addition, Granger causality tests are conducted under error correction technique.

The study establishes that crime rate has a significant impact on TFP in the short and long run. In addition, the positive component of crime rate has positive impacts on TFP in the short run while the negative shocks have negative impacts on TFP. However, in the long run, both positive and negative components have negative impacts on TFP in Nigeria.

This study is the first to analyse the asymmetric impact of crime rate on TFP. The study also advances the literature by examining the symmetric impact of crime rate on TFP in an African country (Nigeria) where crime-related activities are rampant. The study is one of the few studies that shed light on nonlinearities in criminal behaviour.

The study analyzed the moderating role of information and communication technology (ICT) in the financial inclusion–poverty nexus in Nigeria.

The study adopts a battery of econometric techniques such as the generalized method of moments and the fully modified OLS to control for heterogeneity and endogeneity issues in the poverty literature.

The results show that ICT (regardless of the measure of ICT adopted) moderates the impact of financial inclusion on poverty in Nigeria. Specifically, the result shows that ICT strengthens the effectiveness of financial inclusion to reduce poverty. In particular, the results show that in the presence of unanticipated macroeconomic shock, ICT can help to deepen financial inclusion, reduce the negative effects of an unanticipated shock and ameliorate poverty in Nigeria. That is, the vulnerability of the poor in Nigeria to unanticipated economic shocks can be reduced by expanding the use of ICT in the financial sector. The research and policy implications are discussed.

The study accounts for the impact of COVID-19.

This study examines the impact of trade openness, human capital, public expenditure and institutional performance on unemployment in various income groups of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries.

Traditional panel data methodologies neglect the issue of cross-sectional dependence and provide ambiguous outcomes. A novel approach, “dynamic common correlated effects (DCCE)”, is utilized in this study to tackle with aforementioned issue. Pooled mean group (PMG) estimation is also applied to verify the robustness of the findings.

The long-run estimates show that trade openness has a significant and negative relationship with the unemployment rate in overall and lower-income OIC economies and a positive correlation with unemployment in higher-income OIC countries. Public expenditure is negatively and significantly correlated with unemployment in higher-income and overall OIC economies. Moreover, human capital reduces unemployment in higher-income and overall OIC countries while increases unemployment in lower-income OIC economies.

The research tends to endorse the argument for continuous trade openness policy along with efficient use of public expenditure and improved institutional performance to reduce unemployment in OIC countries.

The DCCE approach in this research considers heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence between cross-sectional units and thus gives robust outcomes.

The purpose of this paper (based on the relevant literature) is to: investigate, through empirical analysis, primary school teachers’ perceptions regarding their job satisfaction, and examine whether or not the personal characteristics of primary school educators (such as gender, age, family status, educational level, and the total years of service in public primary education) have any impact on their job satisfaction.

In total, 360 questionnaires were administered to primary school teachers in the metropolitan area of Athens (region of Attiki). The sample was randomly selected. The questionnaire was based on 41 closed and was divided into two sections. The Job Satisfaction Survey developed by Spector (1985) was implemented.

Greek school teachers are generally satisfied with their profession. There is no statistical correlation between personal characteristics and the overall satisfaction while indicated that teachers are more satisfied with three aspects (subscales) of job satisfaction, namely, “administration,” “colleagues” and “nature of work” and less satisfied with “salary,” “benefits” and “potential rewards.” Age correlates with the levels of satisfaction with reference to administration, potential rewards, colleagues and the nature of work. The overall satisfaction positively correlates with all nine aspects of job satisfaction (subscales) and gender affects the aspects of “promotion” and “colleagues.”

This study only analyzes a small sample from the Athens region and hence the results cannot be used to generalize about the whole of Greece. Since other Greek regions operate in different socio-economic environments, an analysis of additional data from other regions (rural and urban areas) would be necessary to compare and confirm the results.

The findings of this study a valuable extension of other relevant research as it provides the first empirical study of the Greek school system, investigating the relationship between certain aspects of job satisfaction and the personal characteristics of school educators as well as the relationship between these aspects of job satisfaction and total satisfaction. In the context of efficient educational policy, a greater understanding of educators’ job satisfaction could facilitate the development of more effective policy practice that would increase not only the level of educators’ satisfaction, commitment and morale but also improve the performance of the school system.

Rice processing, an important feature in rice production involving the transformation of harvested paddy into edible rice, is dependent on the type of rice processing techniques used. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the choice of processing techniques among rice processors in Nigeria.

The study was carried out in Nigeria using structured questionnaires among 410 rice processors selected from four states (Ebonyi, Ekiti, Ogun and Nasarawa) from three geo-political zones (Southeast, Southwest and North-central) of Nigeria. Information on socio-economic characteristics (age, sex, household size, marital status and education) and processing characteristics (experience, paddy source, processing activities, processing techniques, credit and distance) were obtained. Data were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression model at 0.05.

The mean age of processors was 47.8±9.9 years, mean household size was 6.5±4.2 persons and 88.7 percent were married. In total, 73.6 percent had formal education and mean years of experience was 16.4±9.2 years. Main processing activities were parboiling and drying (50.0 percent); milling (40.0 percent); and de-stoning (10.0 percent). In all, 65.7, 20.4 and 13.9 percent used traditional and modern techniques (TMTs), traditional techniques (TTs) and purely modern techniques (PMTs), respectively. The probability of choice of TT relative to TMT reduced by years of education (4.5 percent), paddy source (1.8 percent) and distance to processing center (4.4 percent), while probability of choice of PMT relative to TMT increased for male processors (7.3 percent), membership of association(18.0 percent) and other income sources (6.2 percent).

Level of education of processors and reduction in the distance taken to paddy source reduced choice of TTs.

Other income sources increased the choice of PMTs of rice processing in Nigeria.

Processors with high level of education, who also engage in other income generating activities, were able to choose modern processing techniques.

This research was an original research carried out among rice processors in Nigeria.

The growing number of studies shows that government policies and measures are critical in determining entrepreneurship levels of regions. Any changes in the government policies and measures are, therefore, expected to bring significant changes at the entrepreneurship levels. This paper aims to explore the importance of the government policies and measures, along with supply and demand-side determinants in regional entrepreneurship in Turkey and explains the convergence of entrepreneurship among two distinct periods corresponding to changes in the government policies and measures concerning entrepreneurship.

Looking at a study on 81 NUTS-III regions of Turkey, this paper focusses on regional determinants important in the separation of regions with different entrepreneurship trajectories (based on the initial level and the rate of increase in entrepreneurship). Using discriminant function analysis, this paper tries to show how far government policies are important in distinguishing regions with different entrepreneurship levels.

The outcomes of the analysis show that certain policies and measures recently introduced have become instrumental in triggering higher entrepreneurship levels in regions with already higher levels of entrepreneurship, but not in regions with initially lower levels of entrepreneurship.

This study contributes to the existing regional entrepreneurship literature through introducing the research findings on the importance of government policies and institutions on regional entrepreneurship, besides the role of regional capacities and assets.