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There have been concerns globally as to whether taking COVID-19 vaccination is harmful or not. In this study, we conducted an online survey to measure the knowledge and attitude of people, first about COVID-19, and second about COVID-19 vaccination—various analyses such as descriptive statistics, logistic regression, and support vector regression with k-fold cross-validation. The support vector machine and tuned support vector machine suggest a better fit based on cross-validation error. The results show that immigration requirements significantly explain why an individual would accept the COVID-19 vaccine. This study suggests that people in authority should look into people's concerns regarding taking the COVID-19 vaccine and address them accordingly. The study aims to draw the attention of the people to the concern that surrounds taking COVID-19 vaccination and explored various statistical techniques to draw inference.

The current state of all Nigerian roads is in poor condition, and reports of accidents have been recorded across the federation. The larger mission of the sustainable development goal is to promote sustainable cities and communities. This research study aims to examine factors responsible for road accidents in Nigeria through the quantitative tool of higher extensions of the Poisson regression model (ZTNPRM). A cross-sectional study design was adopted and secondary data was used within a sample period from the 1st quarter of 2006 to the 2nd quarter of 2020. Due to overdispersion, ZTNPRM indicates human errors contribute to a large proportion (41.4%) of road accidents. Vehicle factors are also statistically and positively related to road accidents. All the factors this model identified that lead to road accidents predicted low road accidents. Hence, the study recommends that Nigerian car users follow all rules and regulations associated with safe driving and make the environment safer for people as the sustainable development goal (SDGs). This study recommends more attention to the area of accident and injury prevention as a strategic objective of the SDGs.

Switching between internet solutions in an organization can be challenging, mainly if it affects the core operations and running of the organizations, such as e-payment. It becomes problematic when the role of e-government is not properly considered in an organization. In this study, the school fees e-payment project of a Nigerian University and the losses incurred due to the lack of incorporation of ICT- government into the e-payment process was evaluated. This study recommends good outsourcing, corporate and ICT governance practices such as the incorporation of frameworks like the Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT) and IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), can be integrated to minimize such problems. This would help any University to avert likely losses.

The use of hard drugs (Alcohol, cocaine and Nicotine) has remained the censorious issue globally and in Nigeria. The use of hard drugs and tobacco smoking is common in the stage of adolescence and youth life, which is a deterrent to education and career advancement. Hence, this study looks into socio-demographic factors that influence the use of hard drugs and tobacco smoking among teenagers between the ages of 15 years to 19 years. To achieve this objective, a cross-sectional data was used and a secondary data was obtained from DHS - National Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHS) from the survey year 2018. Some Bayesian models were developed and Conditional Autoregressive (CAR) model with random walk 1 (RW1) was the best model. The study unveiled a positive significant association of settlement, previous place of residence, education attainment, religion, ethnicity, literacy with reported use of hard drugs amongst teenagers of reproductive age.

The traditional Poisson regression model for fitting count data is considered inadequate to fit over-or under-dispersed count data and new models have been developed to make up for such inadequacies inherent in the model. In this study, Bayesian Multi-level model was proposed using the No-U-Turn Sampler (NUTS) sampler to sample from the posterior distribution. A simulation was carried out for both over-and under-dispersed data from discrete Weibull distribution. Pareto k diagnostics was implemented, and the result showed that under-dispersed and over-dispersed simulated data has all its k value to be less than 0.5, which indicate that all the observations are good. Also all WAIC were the same as LOO-IC except for Poisson in the over-dispersed simulated data. Real-life data set from National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was used for further analysis. Seven multi-level models were f itted and the Geometric model outperformed other model.

The emergence of global pandemic known as COVID-19 has impacted significantly on human lives and measures have been taken by government all over the world to minimize the rate of spread of the virus, one of which is by enforcing lockdown. In this study, Autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average (ARFIMA) Models was used to model and forecast what the daily new cases of COVID-19 would have been ten days after the lockdown was eased in Nigeria and compare to the actual new cases for the period when the lockdown was eased. The proposed model ARFIMA model was compared with ARIMA (1, 0, 0), and ARIMA (1, 0, 1) and found to outperform the classical ARIMA models based on AIC and BIC values. The results show that the rate of spread of COVID-19 would have been significantly less if the strict lockdown had continued. ARFIMA model was further used to model what new cases of COVID-19 would be ten days ahead starting from 31st of August 2020. Therefore, this study recommends that government should further enforce measures to reduce the spread of the virus if business must continue as usual.

This study aim at optimizing the parameter θ of Discrete Weibull (DW) regression obtained by maximizing the likelihood function. Also to examine the strength of three acquisition functions used in solving auxiliary optimization problem. The choice of Discrete Weibull regression model among other models for fitting count data is due to its robustness in fitting count data. Count data of hypertensive patients visits to the doctor was obtained at Medicare Clinics Ota, Nigeria, and was used for the analysis. First, parameter θ and β were obtained using Metropolis Hasting Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) algorithm. Then Bayesian optimization was used to optimize the parameter the likelihood function of DW regression, given β to examine what θ would be, and making the likelihood function of DW the objective function. Upper confidence bound (UCB), Expectation of Improvement (EI), and probability of Improvement (PI) were used as acquisition functions. Results showed that fitting Bayesian DW regression to the data, there is significant relationship between the response variable, β and the covariate. On implementing Bayesian optimization to obtain parameter new parameter θ of discrete Weibull regression using the known β, the results showed promising applicability of the technique to the model, and found that EI fits the data better relative to PI and UCB in terms of accuracy and speed.

The need to model count data correctly calls for introducting a flexible yet robust model that can sufficiently handle various types of count data. Models such as Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) used in the past were considered unsuitable. The introduction of the Generalized Linear Model (GLM) and its various extensions was the first breakthrough recorded in modeling count data. Thishis article, propose the Bayesian Dirichlet process mixture prior of generalized linear mixed models (DPMglmm). Metropolis Hasting Monte Carlo Markov Chain (M-H MCMC) was used to draw parameters from target posterior distribution. The Iterated Weighted Least Square (IWLS) proposal was used to determine the acceptance probability in the M-H MCMC phase. Under and over-dispersed count data were simulated, 500 Burn-in was scanned to allow for stability in the chain. 100 thinning interval was allowed so as to nullify the possible effect of autocorrelation in the data due to the Monte Carlo procedure. The DPMglmm and other competing models were fitted to the simulated data, and real-life health insurance claims data sets. The results obtained showed that DPMglmm outperformed MCMCglmm, Bayesian Discrete Weibull, and four other frequentist models. This indicates that DPMglmm is flexible and can fit count data best, either under-dispersed or over-dispersed data.

It is important to fit count data with suitable model(s), models such as Poisson Regression, Quassi Poisson, Negative Binomial, to mention but a few have been adopted by researchers to fit zero truncated count data in the past. In recent times, dedicated models for fitting zero truncated count data have been developed, and they are considered sufficient. This study proposed Bayesian multi-level Poisson and Bayesian multi-level Geometric model, Bayesian Monte Carlo Markov Chain Generalized linear Mixed Models (MCMCglmms) of zero truncated Poisson and MCMCglmms Poisson regression model to fit health count data that is truncated at zero. Suitable model selection criteria were used to determine preferred models for fitting zero truncated data. Results obtained showed that Bayesian multi-level Poisson outperformed Bayesian multi-level Poisson Geometric model; also MCMCglmms of zero truncated Poisson outperformed MCMCglmms Poisson.

It is important to fit count data with suitable model(s), models such as Poisson Regression, Quassi Poisson, Negative Binomial, to mention but a few have been adopted by researchers to fit zero truncated count data in the past. In recent times, dedicated models for fitting zero truncated count data have been developed, and they are considered sufficient. This study proposed Bayesian multi-level Poisson and Bayesian multi-level Geometric model, Bayesian Monte Carlo Markov Chain Generalized linear Mixed Models (MCMCglmms) of zero truncated Poisson and MCMCglmms Poisson regression model to fit health count data that is truncated at zero. Data of visits to visit to the doctor of patients under National Health Insurance Scheme in Nigeria was obtained and used to fit the models. Suitable model selection criteria were used to determine preferred models for fitting zero truncated data. Results obtained showed that Bayesian multi-level Poisson outperformed Bayesian multi-level Poisson Geometric model; also MCMCglmms of zero truncated Poisson outperformed MCMCglmms Poisson.

Liberalization of trade is a universal subject globally and in the West African region as well. Despite liberalization policies, there are fundamental concerns that are inherent regarding the West African region, depicting minimal intra-regional trade as against higher inter-regional trade for the region, including an enormous level of unaccounted exports, making development for the region rather implausible. This study aimed at examining the effect of trade liberalization on economic development in the (ECOWAS) region. It used pooled data for fourteen West African countries for the period within years 2000 and 2017. The method of analysis utilized was the pooled ordinary least square baseline regression, generalized least square, fixed and random effect model technique. The study found the trade liberalization had insignificant impact in relation to economic development for the region. It was discovered that the member countries despite efforts regarding liberalization were not at all ready for the technicalities of liberalization to say the least, hence consequently showing reason for minimal and unaccountable trade within the region. Thus, the study recommends that the government of ECOWAS countries should consider their level of readiness to generously benefit from the policies regarding liberalization in the region. It is beneficial as well, that the level and accountability of intra-regional trade should be enhanced so as to ensure that gains of these strategies are fully exploited by member economies to provide required increase in income, better education, improved life expectancy, enhanced socio-economic environment adequate to create anticipated economic development for the ECOWAS member countries.

Noise pollution has been shown to be a global health hazard and this could be aggravated by the use of noise-emitting generators. Therefore, this study aims to determine the Sound Pressure Levels S...

The relationship between air pollution and mortality calls for attention in recent time. Diverse analyses have been conducted globally, including important cities in Africa, United States, Europe, and Asia. In this study, a time-series analysis is proposed to analyze influence of environmental pollution on mortality in Nigeria using the Vector Autoregressive (VAR) Model. Stationarity test shows that the data is stationary and VAR model suitably fits the data. The study reveals that environmental pollution has significant impact on mortality in Nigeria. Some useful recommendations were made.

Plasma cutting has been a revolutionary method of processing metals as it provides precision cutting with a smooth finish. The Plasma Arc Cutting machine is an important machine used for producing fine cuts and creating shapes in materials. In addition to high energy radiation (ultraviolet and visible) which plasma arc cutting generates, the intense heat of the arc also generates substantial quantities of fumes and smoke from vaporizing metal in the kerf. With a reflection on a case study, this paper examines the working processes of the machine and the effect on the health of operators or any unsuspecting member of the public. With the safety regulations and recommendations from certified bodies, recommendations are made to ensure safety and limitations of health hazards during the use of the machine.