Social entrepreneurship in Nigeria through drivers of religion and work-desire

Purpose Entrepreneurs engaging in social entrepreneurship are inspired by a need to make a difference in their local socio-economic circumstances. In developing countries and emerging economies, social entrepreneurs from deep rural areas are tapping into different types of ways to inspire themselves to sustain actions. Little research has been done to investigate the role religion plays as a source of inspiration to rural entrepreneurs in developing countries. Many scholars from economic sciences reject the probability of linking religion to social entrepreneurship. The purpose of this study is to investigate themes as inspired by religious paradigm aspects of desire, disenchantment, epiphany, bridging and enlightenment. A framework was created for social entrepreneurship development by using religious drivers as premise. Design/methodology/approach In a partially inductive, exploratory design, this study examined the objectives through a qualitative approach. ATLAS.ti, a qualitative data analysis programme, was used for thematic analysis. Findings The key finding was that in this specific rural demographic area, social entrepreneurs often express a common motivation as an aspiration to integrate their religious beliefs and work. Originality/value Investigating a specific demographic sample in a deep rural area in Nigeria provided valuable insights into the community’s way of living by incorporating aspects of religious drivers to develop social entrepreneurship. It was also valuable to discover that the sample views qualities such as hard work, independence and thrift as drivers to strengthen their religious belief and in return boost social entrepreneurship.

Distanced Language Education during the Pandemic from the Perspectives of Foreign Language Instructors

This study aims to examine the opinions of foreign language instructors who teach at preparatory classes through distance education during the pandemic. Based on this objective, five instructors working at a School of Foreign Languages at a state university in Turkey were interviewed and their opinions regarding the positive and negative aspects of distance language teaching were revealed. Moreover, the problems they faced, materials they used, and their willingness to teach through distance education after the pandemic were questioned. Qualitative research method was used in the study. The interviews were decoded and themes were determined. The themes and codes were organized and interpreted using the ATLAS.ti qualitative data analysis programme. The findings revealed four main categories: learning, student, teaching, and assessment and evaluation. Giving education without time and space restrictions, encouraging individual learning, fostering digital learning, and being economical were some of the positive aspects. As for negative aspects, it could be stressed that the instructors were not able to interact with the students adequately and, particularly, they were unable to teach and support the students’ speaking and writing skills at the desired level. From the findings, the use of distance education partially after the pandemic can be suggested as it offers various advantages of time, place, and economy to learners and teachers in education.

Environmental Odour Nuisance Assessment in Urbanized Area: Analysis and Comparison of Different and Integrated Approaches

Prolonged exposure to odour emissions causes annoyance which leads to nuisance and consequently to complaints. Different methodologies exist in the literature to evaluate odour impacts, but not all are suitable to assess environmental odour nuisance. Information about their applicability criteria and comparison, is scarce and referred to short time analysis. The research presents and discusses the application of different methods to characterize and assess odour nuisance around an industrial plant localized in a sensitive area. Experimental activities are carried out through a long-time analysis programme. Field inspections and predictive methods are investigated and compared. A modification of the traditional dispersion modelling approach is proposed in order to adapt its application for the prediction of the odour nuisance. The offensiveness and location factors are identified as key parameters in the quantification of the perceived nuisance. The integrated dispersion modelling multi-level approach is highlighted as the most suitable for defining the plant strategies. The paper provides useful information to characterize environmental odour problems and identify appropriate solutions for an effective management of odorous sources, with the aim of reducing complaints, restoring the proper relationship between odorous plants and the surrounding communities and increasing the overall quality of the environment.

Age Estimation using Aorta Image Analysis in the Thai Population

The current technology used in imaging has an increasing role in medical education. The concept of using an image analysis programme to help in estimating the age of the aorta, the largest artery, can be clearly seen to be of use, especially in establishing age changes for the identification of individuals. The purposes of the study were to investigate gross morphology, morphometric parameters, and the correlation between parameters with age of the aorta in human cadavers by using an image analysis programme. A total of 244 specimens were dissected from 4 locations of 61 human aortas from donour and autopsy cadavers with an age range of 20 to 90 years. The morphometric parameters included outer circumference, inner circumference, aortic diameter, and average thickness of all locations of the aorta. These were defined and measured by using the image analysis programme. The results of this study showed that the outer circumference (r=0.808-0.739), inner circumference (r=0.763-0.682), vertical diameter of the aorta (r=0.628-0.524) and horizontal diameter of the aorta (r=0.808-0.396) showed a significant correlation with age in all areas of the aorta. In the ascending aorta, the correlation between the outer circumference, horizontal diameter and age were higher than other variables and areas. The age equation established pertinent to the outer circumference (OC) in the ascending aorta was age = -61.648+ (1.141(OC)) with a standard error of ± 12.45 years. The age prediction equation for the horizontal diameter (HD) in the ascending aorta was age = -35.799+ (4.134(HD)) and a standard error of ± 12.43 years. In conclusion, knowledge of the structural changes associated with age can be used for age estimation in forensic anthropology.

The need for and benefits of buildability analysis: Nigeria as a case study

Purpose Buildability analysis has a potential of improving the outcomes of construction projects. However, the usage of buildability analysis is not well pronounced within the construction sector. This study aims to provide understanding of the concept of buildability analysis with the view to predicting the future stance for buildability analysis. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a survey research method. Questionnaires were administered to purposively selected group of construction professionals working in Nigeria. A total of 82 questionnaires were administered among the sampled respondents, out of which a total of 51 (62.2%) were adequately filled and returned. The data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings The results revealed inability of the designers and constructors to have a common upstanding of the entire construction process, fragmented nature of the construction industry and poor correlation between design and construction as the most essential needs for buildability analysis. On the benefits of buildability analysis, the results showed increase in efficiency, save wasteful efforts and quality improvement as the most significant ones. In addition, the results from the study revealed that there is a statistically significant difference in some of the needs for and benefits of buildability analysis among the survey participants. Originality/value The study identified three future stances for buildability analysis to include building unity, efficient and effective construction and high competition. Framework for buildability analysis was developed aimed at providing guidance to professionals in achieving enhanced project production information. The findings provide in-depth insight of the needs for and benefits of buildability analysis that can inform professionals in the construction industry to adopt buildability analysis programme as a lasting solution to most design challenges and buildability problems confronting the sector.

Online parental mediation strategies in family contexts of Spain

This article explores online parental mediation strategies in Spain and their association with sociodemographic and family context factors. The results of a survey conducted at the end of 2018 are presented herein, based on a sample of 2,900 Spanish minors between 9 and 17 years of age who use Internet. The impact of the diverse parental mediation strategies applied to Internet use has been calculated by taking into account the sociodemographic factors of the participating minors (age and gender). Association analysis was performed using the SPSS statistical analysis programme. In this case, an extra analysis was carried out with regard to the relationship of influence between different strategies and the rules of behaviour and family support in the household context as perceived by the minor. Findings suggest that enabling and restrictive mediation strategies are very common in Spanish families, while technical mediation strategies have a very limited presence. It is noteworthy that restrictions and security strategies generally apply more to girls than to boys. Household rules related to the behaviour of minors have a positive correlation with an increase of influence of nearly all strategies. However, there is no relevant association between family support perceived by children and restrictive strategies and techniques applied by parents. Este artículo explora las estrategias de mediación parental online en España y cómo los factores sociodemográficos y del contexto familiar se asocian con ellas. Se presentan los resultados de una encuesta realizada a una muestra de 2.900 menores españoles usuarios de Internet, entre 9 y 17 años encuestados a finales del año 2018. La incidencia de las diferentes estrategias de mediación parental en el uso de Internet se ha calculado atendiendo a factores sociodemográficas de los menores (edad y sexo). Mediante un análisis de asociación realizado con el programa de análisis estadístico SPSS se explora también la relación de la incidencia de las diferentes estrategias con las reglas de comportamiento y el apoyo familiar en el contexto del hogar percibidas por el menor. Las estrategias de mediación habilitantes y restrictivas tienen una presencia importante en las familias españolas, mientras que las técnicas tienen una presencia muy limitada. Es remarcable que las restricciones y las estrategias de seguridad, generalmente se aplican más a las niñas que a los niños. Las reglas del hogar relacionadas con el comportamiento de los menores se correlacionan positivamente con el aumento de incidencia de casi todas las estrategias, sin embargo, no existe una asociación significativa entre el apoyo familiar percibido por niños y niñas y las estrategias restrictivas y técnicas aplicadas por los padres y las madres.

TEN YEARS (2010 – 2020) OF EXCITING MISSIOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA: TRENDS AND TRAJECTORIES

Missiology as a theological discipline is dynamic and forever evolving. This dynamism can be observed through trends and trajectories in biblical, theological, and contextual hermeneutics. The authors of this article, by means of literature analysis, scrutinise contributions of some retiring and retired South African missiologists to unearth trends and trajectories in biblical, missiological, and contextual hermeneutics prevalent in South Africa. The authors used the data analysis programme Atlas.ti with a focus on the current four pertinent questions in missiology: What is mission? How should we do mission? What are the goals of mission? What are the contextual issues of mission today and in the near future? The findings reveal interesting trends and trajectories, and points of divergence and similarities, and because of the dynamic nature of missiology, current emerging and established missiologists should continue to shape the future trends and trajectories.

Continuous Daily Evapotranspiration with Optical Spaceborne Observations at Sub-Kilometre Spatial Resolution

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a key parameter in the description of the energy and water fluxes over land. Continuous and spatially detailed ET simulations are thus required for a number of scientific and management-related purposes. These conditions are determined by the modelling approach and the composition of the forcing dataset. This study aimed at simulating daily ET in a diversity of climate and land cover conditions at a spatial resolution of ∼1 km and higher. The modelling approach was based on the algorithm driving the ET product developed and set in operations in the framework of the Satellite Application Facility on Land Surface Analysis programme (LSA-SAF). The implemented algorithm allowed the ingestion of biophysical parameters derived from SPOT-V and PROBA-V observations developed by the Copernicus Global Land Programme, as well as other model parameters at a similar spatial resolution. The model was tested at an ∼1 km spatial resolution in over 40 sites located in different climate and land cover contexts. The implementation at ∼300 m was tested in the upper Biebrza basin, in Poland. The simulations correlated well with the validation dataset (r2 > 0.75 in 80% of sites) and exhibited root mean squared values lower than 1 mm/day in 80% of the cases. The results also pointed to the need for refining the accuracy of soil moisture data sources, especially in dry areas. The results showed the ability of the modelling approach and the SPOT-V/PROBA-V missions to support the generation of long ET time series. They also opened the gate to incorporate Sentinel-3 in ET continuous modelling.

Conservation of Linear Momentum Using Tracker Analysis: A Teaching Material

This work reports an experimental technique specially designed and employed to comprehend and teach the conservation of linear momentum and to overcome instructional difficulties. The apparatus is mainly comprised of specifically designed corrugated inclined planes, two spherical solid balls, a video recorder and a computer with a video tracker analysis programme installed. The momentum measurements are achieved by recording the motion of the rolling bodies and resolving the motion by using the video tracker analyser. Both elastic and inelastic collisions are designed and estimated momentum values clearly justify the conservation of the momentum. The experimental results are also compared with the theoretical calculations, indicating a reasonably good agreement. The designed apparatus can be employed in basic physics laboratories, to achieve enhanced understanding of conservation of the linear momentum.