Asian Journal of Advanced Research and Reports

Exploring the Perceptions of College Students Returning Hometown to Start Businesses: Challenges and Suggestions

Tsaifa (TF) Yen — 2024-04-15

In the past three years, the number of college graduates has increased, and the employment situation is grim. The entrepreneurship of returning hometown college students has become a solution to alleviate the employment problem. At the same time, college students returning hometown to start businesses can also empower the manpower and technology needed for rural revitalization, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone. The purpose of this paper is to explore the problems of college students' perception of returning hometown to start a business, and put forward relevant suggestions. This study obtained data through interviewing 14 applied university students. The results of text analysis show that the entrepreneurial issues perceived by respondents cover market supply and demand, policy, capital and technology, etc., and the awareness and perception of entrepreneurship are relatively weak. Finally, the research suggests that policy-making units should be combined with the actual situation, closely contact with schools or relevant management personnel, and strengthen the policy publicity of college students returning hometown to start businesses. Secondly, when designing the entrepreneurship course, the universities should consider the course activities and cases from the two aspects of the course design in combination with the students' learning situation and the actual market situation. Moreover, in terms of entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial activities, universities can consider introducing relevant measures to set up incubators to encourage students to start businesses or join school-enterprise cooperation.

A Normalised Difference Vegetation Index Model for Maize Crop Performance Monitoring and Cropland Area Mapping in Sudan Ecological Zone of Nigeria

Onyibe, J. E. — 2024-04-15

The monitoring and mapping of crops remotely are critical for easy identification of stressed crop, prompt response to part of the crop field that requires immediate attention and the potential harvest as well as for agricultural field management. Optical remote sensing offers one of the most attractive options for vegetation indices evaluation and some optical remote sensing data are readily available free for this application, especially, Sentinel-2A, which is equipped with a multispectral sensor (MSI), which enables calculation of some vegetation indices and assessment of vegetation health and status. However, serious attention has not been given to the potential of vegetation indices calculated from MSI data in the developing countries, Nigeria inclusive. Thus, the study therefore calculated the time series NDVI for the length of the growing season for the selected crops (Maize) and geometrically calculated area of the farm plot size. In this study. The study used the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and Supervised Image classification technique for the crop health assessment and cropland area mapping for maize. The result showed the mean, standard deviation, range, minimum and maximum NDVI values for all the farm plots over the growing season from planting period to the harvesting period for the selected crop. The average NDVI value in May which marks the onset of the growing season for maize in the study area ranges from 0.044 to 0.148. In July, which represents the period of the grain filing stage ranges from 0.136 to 0.348 and in August, which is the maturity stage for harvest ranges from 0.110 to 0.450. Also, it was observed that cropland area is 194.973269 Square Km. It is therefore evident that the results of our NDVI analysis and cropland area mapping are good insights into solving national agricultural planning problems and agricultural resources allocation for effective agricultural practices for national food security. Our results showed that vegetation indices had the greatest contributions in identifying specific crop types and crop conditions during the growing season.

An Examination of the Relationship between Traffic Congestion and Vehicle Operating Cost in Lagos State

Ojo, Jonathan Olaniyi — 2024-04-15

This study investigates the association between traffic congestion and vehicle operating costs for freight operators in Lagos State Nigeria. It showcases the importance of transport for economic activities and the role of road freight transport in improving logistics efficiency. The research is focused on the traffic congestion adverse effect on freight transportation operational costs including fuel consumption and maintenance cost. The growing population as well as vehicle numbers in cities lead to traffic jams that cause costs to increase for the freight transport sector. Existing studies have addressed congestion-related costs from a variety of perspectives, identifying considerable financial impairments for businesses. Nevertheless, there is no research to document the effect that congestion has on operating expenses for motor vehicles. The research used a purposive sampling technique to select 353 respondents from registered haulage companies in Lagos State. Survey and interview methods were used in the study while data was analyzed using Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient, showing a notable and negative relationship between vehicle operating costs and traffic congestion. The findings demonstrate the costs incurred through efficiency losses and heightened expenses by freight operators due to traffic congestion. The study gives recommendations that policymakers and stakeholders need to be strategic in countering congestion and reducing the operational burden on freight operators, which can be useful data in research on transport challenges in urban areas with the view of improving sustainable transport system planning.

Assessing the Quality and Potential of Fried Noodles: An Analysis of Wheat and Afzelia africana Flour Blends in Chemical, Functional, Physical, and Sensory Dimensions

Ernest Eguono Emojorho — 2024-04-17

Afzelia africana flour was produced by roasting, dehaulling and grinding seeds into flour. In this study, the chemical composition, functional, physical properties and sensory characteristics of fried noodles produced from wheat and Afzelia africana (Akpalata) flour blends were evaluated. Wheat and Afzelia africana flours was blended in the ratio of 100:0(WFO), 95:5(WFAA1), 90:10(WFAA2), 85:15(WFAA3) and 80:20(WFAA4) as 100% wheat flour was used as the control. Samples were used to produce fried noodles. The functional qualities of flour mixes were examined. The noodles samples underwent physical, chemical, and sensory investigation. The noodle sample was cooked and sensory evaluation carried out. Result of proximate composition of the noodles ranged from (crude protein; 23.00- 30.05 crude fat; 10.00- 14.7%, ash; 0.95- 3.00%, crude fibre; 1.10- 2.95%, moisture; 7.50-9.00%, and carbohydrate; 50.00-53.11%) respectively. Functional results showed 0.64 to 0.66 g/cm3, 14.00 to 20.00 % oil absorption capacity, 25.20 to 36.50 ml swelling capacity and 21.00 to 25.90 % water absorption capacity. Physical properties results showed 11.65 – 12.75 cm length and 0.26 – 0.43 cm. The sensory scores showed that sample WFAA4 (80:20) was the most overall acceptable by the judges. In conclusion, acceptable noodles with improved protein content and reduce processing cost can be produced from blends of wheat and Afzelia africana flours.

The Influence of Information Communication Technology on Financial Management

Emedo Michael N — 2024-04-16

Problem Statement: The major drawbacks attached to using olden methods of operation for financial management have been a major catalyst to the adoption of the fast growing Information Communication Technology in Financial Management. The major benefits and advantages of using this method are inestimable. Thus, there is need for presenting up-to-date information in this domain.

Aim: This paper presents up-to-date reference about Information Communication Technology influence on financial management.

Scope of Study: Basic fundamental information is also presented. The concepts of Information Communication Technology and Financial Management were explained. The components, elements and categories of Information Communication Technology in Financial Management were explained. Stock markets and banking sector were referenced as typical financial institutions using Information Communication Technology.

Conclusion: However, some drawbacks of utilizing Information Communication Technology in Financial Management were noticed in the course of investigation and were presented in the paper.

Limitations: Future studies should look into the application of machine learning (such as artificial intelligence, robotics, automation and so on) to improve the influence of information communication technology on financial management. Further studies should be conducted on the applications of information communication technology in different financial management organizations to observe the variations in the ICT influence.