CALL FOR PAPER - Vol 10 - Issue 1

This study examined the effect of digital technology on the performance of small and medium scale enterprises in North east Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research design. The population of the study comprised 71,545 registered SMEs operating within the North East region of Nigeria. However, the Taro Yamane (1967) formula was used to determine a sample size of 398 respondents. The study further employed a convenience sampling technique to select and reach the respondents. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire designed on a 5-point Likert scale. The collected data were then analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The study found a positive and significant effect of both online payment systems and artificial intelligence adoption on the performance of SMEs in North east. Base on the study findings, it recommends that SMEs in should adopt more artificial intelligence tools and make sure they are used effectively in daily operations. This can be done by investing in affordable AI solutions and training staff to build digital skills. Finally, SMEs should strengthen the use of online payment systems by encouraging cashless transactions and using secure digital platforms. With proper training and reliable internet access, these tools will help improve efficiency, reduce errors, and enhance overall business performance.

Vision-Language Models like CLIP and SigLIP align images and text in a shared embedding space, but the internal mechanisms by which they bind visual concepts to language remain opaque. We apply mechanistic interpretability methods to localize and characterize circuits responsible for cross-modal concept binding in CLIP-ViT-B/32 and SigLIP-SO400M. Using causal tracing, sparse autoencoders, and activation patching, we identify three functional subsystems: early visual feature extraction, cross-attention-mediated grounding, and late-stage concept fusion. We find that 12–18% of MLP neurons and 7% of attention heads exhibit polysemantic, modality-invariant concept selectivity for objects, colors, and relations. Causal intervention on these circuits produces predictable changes in image-text alignment scores, confirming causal roles. Our analysis reveals that concept binding relies on a small set of highly interpretable circuits rather than distributed representations. These findings provide a foundation for targeted model editing, bias mitigation, and robust multimodal alignment.

Ransomware has emerged as one of the most devastating forms of cybercrime in the modern digital era. This research examines ransomware attack patterns, analyzing the distinct phases through which these attacks are executed, the detection techniques employed to identify them, and the prevention and recovery strategies organizations can adopt to minimize damage. [1,4] By synthesizing current research and real-world case studies, this research provides a comprehensive overview of how ransomware operates and how individuals and organizations can defend against it. Findings indicate that a multi-layered security approach — combining behavioral detection, network segmentation, employee training, and immutable backups — offers the most robust defense against ransomware threats. [5,7]

This study determined the effect of energy consumption on standard of living, measured by per capita income, in Nigeria from 1990 to 2023. Energy consumption was proxied by electricity consumption, natural gas consumption, solar energy consumption, and hydropower energy. The study made use of time series data sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin, World Development Indicators of the World Bank, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Africa Energy Portal (AEP), and International Energy Agency (IEA). The main data analysis techniques adopted include Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test, correlation matrix, bounds cointegration test, and the Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) approach. The major findings showed that electricity consumption, natural gas consumption, and solar energy consumption have positive and significant effects on per capita income in Nigeria, while hydropower energy has a positive and non-significant effect on per capita income. Premised on the findings, the study concluded that energy consumption plays a significant vital role in enhancing the standard of living of Nigerians as measured by per capita income. It was recommended among others that the Nigerian government should invest heavily in both the national electricity grid and off-grid energy solutions (such as solar mini-grids and home systems), particularly in underserved rural and peri-urban areas, to increase economic activity and raise per capita income.

The commercialization of Interlocking Stabilized Soil Block (ISSB) technology has been widely recognized as a viable approach to promoting sustainable construction, reducing housing costs, and minimizing the environmental impacts associated with conventional building materials. Despite its numerous technical, economic, and environmental advantages, the adoption and commercialization of ISSB technology in Nigeria remain relatively low. This study assessed the barriers to the commercialization of ISSB technology within Nigeria's construction industry by examining the perceptions of construction professionals and key stakeholders. A quantitative research approach was adopted using a structured questionnaire administered to 185 respondents comprising architects, builders, engineers, quantity surveyors, ISSB manufacturers, material suppliers, and government officials. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Relative Importance Index (RII), Cronbach's Alpha reliability test, Spearman's Rank Correlation, and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The findings revealed that lack of awareness and inadequate knowledge of ISSB technology (RII = 0.92), high cost of ISSB block press equipment (RII = 0.88), limited technical skills and trained personnel (RII = 0.85), insufficient government support and policy frameworks (RII = 0.80), and negative public perception of earth-based construction materials (RII = 0.79) constitute the most significant barriers to ISSB commercialization in Nigeria. Factor analysis further classified these barriers into three principal dimensions: technical and economic constraints, institutional barriers, and market and social acceptance. The study concludes that the commercialization of ISSB technology requires coordinated interventions involving government agencies, professional institutions, manufacturers, financial organizations, and academia. It recommends the establishment of national standards for ISSB production, improved stakeholder awareness through continuous professional education, financial incentives for equipment acquisition, expanded technical training programmes, and the implementation of demonstration housing projects to accelerate the adoption of ISSB technology and promote sustainable housing development in Nigeria.

This study examines how waste management systems can be embedded into slaughterhouse design to improve environmental sustainability and operational efficiency in Nigerian abattoirs. The aim of the research is to develop an integrated design framework that embeds efficient and sustainable waste management systems into slaughterhouse architecture, using global best practices to inform the redesign of Nigerian abattoirs. A qualitative-dominant mixed-methods approach was adopted, combining systematic literature review, international case study analysis, and Nigerian abattoir case studies from six different Nigerian States including Abuja-Federal Capital Territory. Data were analyzed through thematic, comparative, spatial, and gap analysis to assess functional zoning, waste segregation, wastewater treatment, resource recovery, environmental impact, and workflow efficiency. Findings show that Nigerian abattoirs consistently operate with weak spatial organization, informal waste handling, poor wastewater treatment, and limited resource recovery, while international facilities demonstrate integrated systems that support cleaner workflows and lower environmental risk. The comparative results indicate that waste management failure in Nigerian abattoirs is primarily a design problem rather than only an operational or regulatory one. The study concludes that incorporating waste systems at the design stage significantly improves sustainability, public health, and operational performance. The proposed framework offers a context-sensitive model for retrofitting and designing future Nigerian abattoirs.