Search results

There are no adequate records on the nutrition of the people living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. This paper aims to rectify this.

Purposive sampling technique was used to select 200 PLWHA respondents at the Federal Medical Center Idiaba, Abeokuta. A pre‐tested questionnaire was used to collect information on the subjects’ socio‐demographic characteristics and health status of respondents. A three day 24‐hour recall was used to assess the food intake of the subjects. Adequacy of nutrient intake was assessed as a percentage of the recommended dietary allowance. Packed cell volume (PCV) estimation was investigated using a sub‐sample of 100 respondents.

The values obtained were compared with WHO/UNICEF/UNU reference values. The mean PCV for the 33 men was 31.9±6.62 while the mean value for the remaining 67 females was 29.4±4.87, which was below the reference values. A positive correlation was obtained between the PCV and energy intake (r=0.528, 33; p<0.01) as well as serum iron (r=0.474; p<0.01).

This study suggests that a healthy diet that is adequate in terms of energy, protein, fat, and other essential nutrients should be promoted in Nigeria as a key component of positive living for people with HIV.

This paper may be the first to evaluate the nutrient intake and health status of HIV/AIDS patients in Abeokuta, Nigeria

The purpose of this examine the impact of income inequality and shadow economy on environmental degradation given the growing income inequality, shadow economy and ecological degradation in developing countries. Thus, this study is motivated to offer empirical insight into how income inequality and shadow economy influence the environment in African countries.

Data from 29 countries in Africa between 2000 and 2017 were used, while the novel method of moments quantile regression of Machado and Silva (2019) and Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) (2012) granger causality is used as the estimation techniques.

The results established the presence of cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity in the panel, while Westerlund panel cointegration confirmed the long-run cointegration among the variables. The results from the quantile regression suggest that income inequality increases environmental degradation from the 5th to the 30th quantiles, while from the 70th quantiles, income inequality reduces ecological degradation. The shadow economy negatively influences environmental degradation across the quantiles, strengthening environmental quality. Per capita income (economic growth) and financial development positively impact environmental degradation throughout the quantiles. However, urbanization reduces environmental degradation from 60th to 95th quantiles. The D-H causality established a two-way relationship between income inequality and environmental degradation, while one-way from shadow economy, per capita income and urbanization to environmental degradation were established.

This study provides fresh insights into the nexus between shadow economy and environmental quality in the presence of higher levels of income inequality for the case of African region. The study applies quantile analysis via moment proposed by Machado and Silva (2019). This technique shows that the impact of income inequality and shadow economy on environmental degradation is heterogeneous across the quantiles of ecological footprints in Africa.

Motivated by the conflicting evidence on the effect of financial development on environmental quality, this study investigates the moderating role of institutional quality in the link between financial development and environmental quality using a robust proxy in Malaysia from 1984 to 2017.

Ecological footprint is used to measure environmental quality, while financial development is proxied using three measures (domestic credit provided by the private sector, domestic credit provided by the financial sector and domestic credit provided by the banking sector). An index of institutional quality is generated from voice and accountability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption. Autoregressive Distributed Lag Bounds Test, Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square and Canonical Cointegrating Regression were used as the estimation techniques.

The results show that financial development, institutional quality, economic growth and foreign direct investment improve environmental quality in the short run, whereas trade openness and natural resources worsen it. In the long run, financial development, institutional quality, economic growth, trade openness and natural resources deteriorate the environment. Furthermore, findings from the interactive term suggest that institutions and financial development complement each other to affect the environment in the short run. However, institutions and financial development perform a substitutability role in influencing the environment in the long run.

The outcome of this study suggests that there are time lags in the relationship between institutional quality, financial development and ecological footprint in Malaysia. Furthermore, the study offers important policy implications to policymakers in Malaysia and other developing countries on how to mitigate environmental degradation.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the moderating role of institutional quality in the relationship between financial development and ecological footprint in Malaysia. It examines the direct and indirect effects of financial development on environmental degradation through institutional quality, which have received less attention in the context of Malaysia. The findings from this study are robust to different proxies and estimation techniques.

Motivated by the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG-7: clean and affordable energy, SDG-8: sustainable economic growth, SDG-13: climate action), this study aims to investigate the role of economic complexity, disaggregated energy consumption in addition to economic growth, financial development, globalization and urbanization on the ecological footprint of United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This study adopts unit root tests (with and without a structural break), autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test and dynamic ordinary least squares.

The results obtained from the ARDL model suggest that economic complexity (EC), nonrenewable energy and economic growth increase the ecological footprint in both the short and long run, thus deteriorating the environment. However, renewable energy and urbanization reduce the ecological footprint in UAE during the two periods, thus improving environmental quality. Globalization and financial development have different influences on ecological footprint during these periods. These findings are robust to other estimation techniques.

Based on these results, this study offers significant policy implications such as increasing renewable energy supply, particularly solar energy and aligning the product manufacturing structure and complexity toward producing environmentally friendly products which can be used to realize the nation’s agenda of reducing fossil fuels consumption to 38% by 2050 and achieving sustainable environment and growth.

This study provides an empirical attempt to investigate the influence of EC and renewable and nonrenewable energy on the ecological footprint of the UAE.

Establishing a more sustainable built environment is an increasing global concern for the construction industry. Despite the intrinsic and extrinsic obstacles the stakeholders face, huge efforts are required to transition to a smooth, sustainable construction (SC) practice. This study identifies and discusses cogent obstacles to SC in developing nations.

The Preferred Reporting Item for systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) approach was employed to establish research work in SC for developing countries. The databases used were Scopus and Web of Science. Meta-analysis of keywords was analysed thematically. The initial broad search returned 8,420 publications which were filtered and reviewed in-depth to fit the aim of the study, produced only 21 relevant publications from the years 2000–2021.

The four identified themes of obstacles to SC in developing countries are as follows: construction professional training and education, clients' attitudes and awareness, construction industries' culture and capacity and governments' regulation, policies and economy. The key barriers identified from the meta-analysis include inadequate training and education amongst construction professionals, poor execution of sustainability ethics, poor populace attitude towards sustainability, poor awareness and understanding, dearth of precise data and integrated study and inappropriate priorities about sustainability.

The originality in this study are themes drawn from millennium development goals (MDGs) and sustainable development goals (SDGs) publications related to SC. Consequently, the final framework presented a holistic approach to surmounting the established limitations and aided recommendations for future studies. Thus, setting a background for developing strategies to overcome the limitations and further attain sustainable development (SD).

This paper aims to consolidate the state of research on information behaviour. Regardless of the scholarly surge on information behaviour using numerous models and extended ones, gaps still exist on the development of more pragmatic frameworks that explain and/or predict the information behaviour across different fragmented environmental situations. Therefore, this paper extends technology-organization-environment (T-O-E) framework and synthesizes different research positions into a multi-dimensional framework that assists small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to understand their information behaviour and to make informed decisions on the adoption of emerging information communication technology (EICT).

This study deployed an inductive approach; data were generated from unstructured and semi-structured interviews with 20 participants drawn purposively from Luton directories.

This study developed a more integrated framework underpinned by T-O-E framework, which helped to identify how EICT adoption is critically shaped by perceived information need, information sources selection and the factors determining information source selection.

Qualitative research is normally subjective, inductive, interpretive and limited on the sample used. However, because of the limited number of interviews used, as well as industry-specific nature of the study, the generalization of the framework and the findings will be difficult, hence, the need to test the framework on a broader population and cross-context testing.

The T-O-E framework is extended to Expectancy (T-O-E-E) to provide a more robust insight into information behaviour of SMEs from a multi-dimensional perspective. It also offers a more analytical framework for exploring critical issues identified and demonstrates the capacity to provide a reliable explanation to the findings. Further, it serves as a tool for assessing the benefits or challenges of SMEs information behaviour especially on the EICT adoption decision.

Kaizen in construction is a new paradigm stemming out of lean production systems. Construction companies in developing economies, such as Nigeria, have a task to innovate to liquidate in certain cases. With the aid of kaizen, which encompasses the benefit of stakeholder relationship improvement and management, profitability enhancement and delivery of projects to satisfied clients, construction companies can realise expected growth. An exploration of the critical success factors (CSF) and associated drivers within the limits of the scope is essential. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Exploratory factor analysis statistical tests categorised the CSF identified in the literature review section. A detailed sampling approach extracted 135 questionnaires under the five-point Likert scale format from a larger population in Nigeria. An exploration of important drivers and iteration of eigenvalues combined with asymptotic significance of the drivers provided the CSF and significant drivers.

Construction management function, operational efficiency, construction business ethics and construction cost management were the CSF established from the exploratory factor analysis tests. It was confirmed that kaizen can be adopted in Nigerian construction companies with reflections on the principal drivers for the CSF.

The exploration of the CSF and drivers associated with kaizen implementation can be applied to other developing countries with considerations of implementation in terms of cost and time.

The identification of CSF provides ample opportunity for consideration of kaizen in construction companies. The findings of this study are a basis for investigations into cost and time implications of kaizen adoption in construction companies.

Black turtle bean has nutritional potentials in the human diet and could provide a significant amount of food in developing countries. Low consumption of black beans has been attributed partly to the hard-to-cook phenomenon which requires a long time of cooking. Germination improves nutritional, functional, bioactive compounds, reduces anti-nutrients and cooking time. Germinated black turtle bean can contribute to efforts geared towards the production of functional foods and the fight against protein malnutrition. This study aims to investigate the changes in the nutritional, antioxidants and functional properties of black turtle bean due to different epigeal germination times to increase its utilization in food systems.

Black turtle bean seeds (Phaseolus vulgaris) were cleaned, winnowed, washed, soaked for 16 h, drained and subjected to epigeal germinated at ambient temperature for 0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h, respectively. The germinated seeds were dried, dehulled, milled and sieved. Proximate, antioxidant properties and activity, anti-nutrients, mineral (calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium, manganese, copper, potassium, zinc and magnesium) and functional properties (water absorption capacity, oil absorption, bulk density, swelling index, water solubility index and gelling concentration) of the germinated black turtle bean (GTB) flour (0GTB, 24GTB, 48GTB, 72GTB and 96GTB) were determined using standard procedures.

The ash, protein, fat and fibre contents of the black turtle bean were significantly increased through germination. Germination resulted in changes in the antioxidant activity of the black turtle bean samples. The mineral content of the black bean samples was improved significantly by germination and as well altered the functional properties (p < 0.01). Oxalate and phytate were significantly reduced with increased germination time (p < 0.01). In total, 96 h germination (96GTB) had better antioxidant activity, mineral and proximate composition with lower anti-nutrients.

Germination for 96 h proved to be the optimum time for improved mineral content, increased protein, ash, fibre, antioxidant activity and property with reduced antinutrients. Germination represents an attractive, inexpensive means of improving the nutritional profile and enhancing the bio-functionality of the black turtle bean. The epigeal germinated turtle bean could find applied as a functional ingredient in food formulation.

Several studies have examined the effect of formal economy (usually proxy by economic growth) on environmental quality; however, the symmetric and asymmetric impact of the informal economy on environmental quality has not been examined in Nigeria. Therefore, this study aims to explore the short- and long-run (a)symmetric effect of formal and informal economies and financial development on Nigeria’s environmental quality between 1984 and 2017.

The study uses ecological footprint to measure environmental quality. An increase in ecological footprint suggests a fall in environmental quality. Informal economy is calculated as a percentage of GDP using the currency demand approach. Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), nonlinear ARDL cointegration framework and vector error correction granger causality are used as estimation techniques.

The study’s outcomes establish the existence of asymmetric structure in the link between economic activities and the environment both in the short and long run. The asymmetric results reveal that positive and negative changes in the formal economy increase the ecological footprint in both periods. Hence, activities in the formal economy reduce environmental quality. On the other hand, positive and negative changes in the informal economy only positively influence the ecological footprint in the long run. In contrast, it negatively impacts the ecological footprint in the short run. This suggests that activities in the informal economy worsen the long-run environmental quality. Financial development has a positive influence on the ecological footprint, thus degrading the environmental quality. Furthermore, in the short run, a unidirectional relationship from the formal economy to the ecological footprint, while a bidirectional causality exists between informal and formal economies. Meanwhile, a unidirectional causality from the (in)formal economies and financial development to the ecological footprint was found in the long run.

The outcome of this study shows that both informal and formal economies contribute to ecological footprint; therefore, mainstreaming the informal economy into the formal economy will further increase the problem of environmental degradation and worsen environmental quality.

The study investigates the symmetric and asymmetric effect of formal and informal economies on environmental quality in Nigeria, which is largely missing in the empirical literature.

While circular economy (CE) is fast becoming a political and economic agenda for global urban development, there are still substantial knowledge gaps in possible strategies to speed up such transition, especially in the construction industry. This study analyses literature surrounding CE to unpack current trends possible future research directions to foster CE implementation in the construction industry.

The study undertakes a systematic review of CE literature published between 1990 and 2019. It adopts a five-stage procedure as a methodological approach for the review: formulation of the research question(s), locating and identifying relevant studies, selection and evaluation of studies, analysis or synthesis and results reporting.

The findings on CE research in the construction industry show extensive focus on resource use and waste management. There are limited investigations in other areas of construction such as supply chain integration, building designs, policy, energy efficiency, land use, offsite manufacturing, whole life costing, and risk, cost reduction, cost management, health and safety management. The study findings provide evidence that current CE practice fails to incorporate other areas that would facilitate the network of true circular construction industry.

This research provides a comprehensive overview of research efforts on CE in the construction context, identifying areas of extensive and limited coverage over three decades. Besides, it identifies possible pathways for future research directions on CE implementation, towards the accelerated transition to a true circular construction industry for the benefit of funding bodies and researchers.