An article on the peculiarites of professionalism, its relationship to entrepreneurship and the effects on the national development of an economy.
1.BACKGROUND OF STUDY Since its independence in 1960, Nigeria has been trying to transform its status from a third world economy to a first world economy. This has resulted to successive governments launching and implementing different economic programmes to achieve this aim ranging from the First Economic Development Plan, Second Economic Development Plan, Third Economic Development Plan, Green Revolution, Structural Adjustment Programme, Vision 2010, National Economic Empowerment and Develo...
The economics in the U.S. of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems is changing rapidly as the cost per unit power of PV modules has dropped quickly. These costs reductions have two important results: marked decrease in levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) into ranges competitive or better than traditional electricity-generation technologies and the economic role of racking has been gaining prominence relative to that of modules. As the relative importance of costs of PV racking has been marginal hi...
The potential instability created if Iran obtained nuclear weapons threatens global peace. If the U.S. follows the standard model, relatively weak diplomacy and economic sanctions could lead to another Iraq-like war. Although Iran and Iraq have differences, most observers would agree that the same outcome and price are likely results. In purely economic terms, the CBO estimates that the Iraq-US war cost ~$2.4 trillion. Is there, however, a wiser, more-profitable way to invest in the eliminati...
Quantification of nuclear liability insurance is difficult without arbitrary liability caps; however, post-mortem calculations can be used to calculate insurance costs. This study analyzes the Fukushima (Daiichi) nuclear power plant disaster to quantify the cost per unit electricity ($/kWh) of nuclear energy from the lifetime of the plant after accounting for the true cost of the liability needed to cover the damages from the nuclear disaster determined from news reports. These costs are then...
The 2020 toy and game market is projected to be US$135 billion. To determine if 3D printing could affect these markets if consumers offset purchases by 3D printing free designs, this study investigates the 100 most popular downloaded designs at MyMiniFactory in a month. Savings are quantified for using a Lulzbot Mini 3D printer and three filament types: commercial filament, pellet-extruded filament, and post-consumer waste converted to filament with a recyclebot. Case studies probed the quali...
Ph.D. scientists and engineers are highly qualified personnel (HQP) that improve U.S. economic efficiency and generate new products including weapons of interest to the intelligence community. HQP represent a small fraction of the population, which make them favorable targets to compromise. This study analyzes how to defend against a novel approach of covert infiltration that uses administrative techniques to neutralize HQP without recruiting them directly. The approach follows five hierarchi...
Distributed manufacturing even at the household level is now well established with the combined use of open source designs and self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) 3-D printers. Previous work has shown substantial economic consumer benefits for producing their own polymer products. Now flexible filaments are available at roughly 3-times the cost of more conventional 3-D printing materials. To provide some insight into the potential for flexible filament to be both technically feasible a...
Following requirements of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, most U.S. states require utility companies to adopt interconnection and net metering policies, allowing customers to become prosumers who both consume and produce electricity, generating electricity using distributed renewable energy technologies, connecting to the existing electric utility grid, and receiving compensation for excess electricity generation. This paper reviews existing interconnection and net metering policies instituted...
This study determines the nuclear pragmatic limit where the direct physical negative consequences of nuclear weapons use are counter to national interests, by assuming all unknowns are conservatively optimistic. The only effect considered is nuclear winter (" nuclear autumn " in the low weapons limits) and the resultant effects on the aggressor nation. First, the ability of low nuclear weapon limits is probed for maintaining deterrence in the worst-case scenario of attacking the most-populous...
As a growing number of companies reject intellectual property (IP) monopoly-based business models to embrace libre product development of free and open source hardware and software, there is an urgent need to refurbish the instruments of university-corporate research partnerships. These partnerships generally use a proprietary standard research agreement (PSRA), which for historical reasons contains significant IP monopoly language and restrictions for both the company and the university. Suc...
ABSTRACT This study examines the challenges of bank fraud and commercial bank performance in Nigeria 1991-2016. The core macro-economic variables used for the study are Earnings before Tax of commercial banks in Nigeria, Expected Losses from insecurity and Fraud cases, Number of Fraud Cases, Number of staff involved in fraud cases and Volume (amount) involved in fraud cases. OLS multiple regressions is employed to examine the challenges of bank fraud and commercial bank performance in Nigeria...
ABSTRACT This study examined the impact of working capital management and profitability of 10 quoted manufacturing companies in Nigeria using a cross-sectional time series data for the period 2010 – 2015. The study used secondary data generated from the published annual reports and account of the sampled companies. Data were analysed using correlation and descriptive statistics using SPSS 20. The study reviewed a positive effect of cash conversion cycle (CCC), receivable colle...
Women face barriers that significantly constrain their production and entangle them in a low productivity trap. These barriers encompass societal norms, the gender division of labour (GDOL), resource constraints (access to and use of land), no or low use of inputs (eg drought-adapted seeds), and limited access to climate services and agro-advisories. Under a changing climate, these barriers will further constrain women’s ability to adapt, and the gender gap in agriculture will continue to ...
When we think of African Americans we immediately associate them with slave history and when we think of the indenture system, we associate it with the Asian migrant workers of the nineteenth century British colonies. Neither of these assumptions have been carefully clarified in the Indian indenture scholarship. Although, indenture history of North American colonies of Britain was extensively covered by economic historians and migration studies, very little has been discussed in regard to the...