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Family is considered to be the corner stone of every society; it enhances its functionality and sustainability. However, the problem of spousal abuse has destroyed and disorganized many families in Nigeria, thereby hampering the stability of the basic institution. This study takes a look at spousal abuse as it affects the family stability as perceived in Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Three research questions and a hypothesis guided the study. Descriptive research design was used, the population of the study consisted of 200 respondents. The study combines both qualitative and quantitative methods, which involves the use of questionnaire and focus group discussion (FGD) to collect data. The study selects 200 respondents and two FGD sessions of 10 participants each (married men and women). Data generated was analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation while the hypothesis was tested using linear regression. The results of the study revealed that wife/husband battering, insults/name calling, spousal rape/sexual deprivation, economic deprivation, and food deprivation constitutes spousal abuse in Lafia, Nasarawa State; destruction of platform necessary for good and healthy upbringing of the children among others are how the problems of spousal abuse affect family stability; there is a significant relationship between what constitutes spousal abuse and causes of spousal abuse in Lafia, Nasarawa State. It was recommended that more sensitization and education to end spousal abuse should be vigorously pursued; government and non-government organizations should create avenues where women are empowered and psychological centers for rehabilitation should be established.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivation, influences, and perceived effect of information and communication technology (ICT) adoption in Botswana organizations. While a conceptual model of the adoption process in developed countries has been studied, not much empirical studies have been undertaken. This paper is an attempt to bridge this gap. Specifically, the paper addresses five questions: What motivated organizations in Botswana in their decision to adopt ICT in their operations? What factors, internal and external, influenced the adoption decision? Which sources did the organizations contact for information on the adoption of ICT? What is the relative importance of those influencing/motivating factors and information sources? What are the perceived effects of adoption?

The study was carried out using a survey method. The main instrument is a personally administered questionnaire that was based on items obtained and adapted from literature. Data were collected from a judgment sample of 29 business and public sector establishments, drawn from nine towns and cities of Botswana. The respondent in each organization was either the IT manager or the chief executive. The initial stage of the adoption process is examined by identifying, in the sample Botswana organizations, the internal and external proponents of the ICT adoption process, the sources from which organizations seek technical information, their perceived relative importance in the process, and the effect of adoption on organizations' activities.

The study found that ICT application in Botswana was still at an elementary stage, mainly communications and recordkeeping. In terms of motivation and influence, the competitive motive and internal sources of information and influence were dominant and that the overall effect of ICT adoption on several organizational activities was moderately positive.

The identification of the key sources of influence and information for the adoption of ICT helps ICT marketing companies to target their marketing efforts more specifically, and services offered limited to basic needs that are relevant to the use to which ICT is currently applied in Botswana. Widespread adoption of ICT has turned it into a kind of “hygiene” factor rather than a “motivator”. In spite of the positive effect adoption has on various activities of adopting organizations, adoption benefits are matched by similar benefits of competing organizations, thus conferring no competitive advantages. It is only in the absence of adoption that those organizations adopting enjoy such competitive advantage.

The objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive literature survey on dyslexic learners and to propose a model for integrated assistive technology of dyslexic learners.

The use of the proposed model through real-life scenarios categorized as “phonological, reading and writing scenarios”. We have also surveyed some systems for use with dyslexic learners currently in use and have compared them on the basis of number of barriers, technological innovation, age group and fostering.

Dyslexic learners are characterized by slow learning, poor handwriting, poor spelling skills and difficulties in planning, organizing, revising and editing texts; technology plays a major role in the educational environment; it has become crucial in impacting knowledge across the globe; and open research issues and challenges that have to be addressed in the design of the current dyslexic system have been presented in detail.

Full implementation of the proposed model and its application in developing countries.

The system improves the phonological awareness, reading and writing skills of dyslexic learners and it provides a solution for children as well as adults with dyslexia.

This survey can be used as a reference guide to understand learning barriers and intelligent systems for dyslexic learners and to promote the use of these in schools for those with learning disabilities who need assistive technologies.

Development of a newly proposed integrated intelligent assistive system for dyslexic learners; knowledge generation as a reference guide to understand dyslexic learning ability in general and an intelligent assistive dyslexic system in particular; and survey of open research issues and challenges to further research in intelligent dyslexic systems.

Successful implementation of an automation project depends not only on proper execution by the library or information centre involved, but also on the commitment and on‐going support from the vendor or agent of the automated library system. This factor is often overlooked whenever there are discussions on the low level of application of information technology in developing countries. It is often wrongly assumed that the services and products of the library system vendors are available to library and information centres in this region. To this end, a survey was undertaken of the current status of marketing activities in Nigeria, of library system vendors, their attitude and commitment to the Nigerian market, their prerequisites for marketing in Nigeria, and projections of their marketing activities for the future; so that decisions could be made on the likely directions of library automation investments and developments in Nigeria. The work was carried out in 1988 when the author was a United Nations University Fellow at Trinity College Dublin.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the service quality (SQ) of property managers of shopping complexes in Ibadan with a view to improving management practice.

Primary data were used for the study through questionnaire administration. Ibadan was stratified into five axes using existing major roads where shopping complexes were highly concentrated. From each axis, 33, 65, 48, 64 and 66 shopping complexes were identified (Oyo State Ministry of Land, Housing and Survey, 2017), and the systematic sampling technique (20 percent) was adopted to select 57 out of 276 shopping complexes and 192 (10 percent) out of 1919 occupiers of the shopping complexes in the study area. In total, 157 occupiers responded to the questionnaire, and the data were analyzed using mean ranking and stepwise multiple regression.

This study found that professionalism, tangible, assurance and empathy dimensions of SQ were rated fair, whereas reliability and responsiveness dimensions were rated poor. Also, stepwise multiple regression analysis predicted 78.5 percent overall SQ of property managers, and assurance, professionalism and empathy dimensions contributed significantly to the overall SQ. Hence, reliability and responsiveness dimensions of SQ need to be improved. It is expected that the findings of this study will help property managers to understand the role of various dimensions of SQ for enhanced property management practice.

The study is one of the few studies that assessed the SQ of property managers of shopping complex with a view to improving its management practice.

The paper examined the dimensions of innovation in small scale manufacturing firms with a view to understanding the interaction and relationship among product innovation, process innovation, organizational innovation, and marketing innovation. It further determines the relationship that exists between sales turnover and the four dimensions of innovation. Forty-six small manufacturing firms were sampled across the 4 major small scale Industrial Estates in Lagos State. The paper observed that these small firms engaged mainly in process innovation. The correlation analysis revealed a significant relationship between marketing and process innovation (r = 0.51; p<0.01) while there is no causality between product and process innovation (r = 0.31; p<0.05); product innovation and organizational innovation (r = 0.22; p<0.05); product innovation and marketing innovation (r = 0.11; p<0.05); and process and organizational innovation (r = 0.27; p<0.05) in these firms. The paper concludes that these firms are solely interested in upgrading and renewal of products, improving new methods of production, supply and distribution. The paper finally submitted that the observed trend is not unconnected with poor R&D initiative between small firms and research institutions, poor technological innovation capability of firms, and poor linkages/collaboration among stakeholder on new product development.

Cartoons have these last years represented an excellent way to lead debates on various socio-political and economic issues affecting Nigeria and to engage and enlighten Nigerian audiences. Almost all Nigerian newspapers and magazines have found them instrumental in their criticism of political malpractices and socio-cultural maladies plaguing the country. In line with this, many social forces (particularly NGOs) have embraced cartooning as a strong tool for environmental activism. Such social entities have in various platforms, deployed cartoons as a fruitful sensitization machinery to mobilize various segments of the Nigerian populace in favor of environmental protection. These sensitization efforts have most often entailed the construction/composition of emotionally and ideologically loaded cartoons that reflect many local myths and which are founded on local idiosyncrasies and worldviews. Understanding some Nigerian environmental cartoons has thus often been a complex task which in many instances, necessitates not only a full grasp of the principles of visual rhetoric but equally sufficient knowledge of some local myths and socio-cultural realities. In view of this fact, it may be interesting to apply semiotics in the reading of environmental cartoons. This chapter addresses this issue. It is divided into three main parts. The first part explores the state of environmental protection in Nigeria. The second part examines cartoons as a tool for social and political activism. The third part provides theoretical illuminations on the use of semiotics in the interpretation of cartoons and the last part provides a semiotic analysis of selected environmental cartoons.