E - American Academic & Scholarly Research Center

www.aasrc.org/aasrj American Academic & Scholarly Research Journal Vol. 4, No. 4 July 2012 

American Academic 

& Scholarly Research Journal 

AASRJ – July 2012 

Vol. 4, No. 4 

ISSN2162-321X (print) 

ISSN2162-3228 (online) 

American Academic & Scholarly Research Center 

1 

AASRC.ORG


Editorial Team 

Tony Montana, Professional Certification Accreditation Board, International Certification Council, 

United States 

Zisheng Xing, University of New Brunswick, Canada 

Janusz Kacprzyk, Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland 

Eleonora Baban, University of Bucharest, Romania 

Kamal K. PANT, IIT, India 

Irina Novikova, University of Latvia, Latvia 

Roman Boutellier, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland 

Seema Sharma, Indian Institute of Technology, India 

Mahmoud Abdel-Aty, Sohag University, Egypt & University of Bahrain, Bahrain, Bahrain 

Vaiyapuri Govindasamy, Pondicherry Engineering College, India 

Sam Man Keong, SIET, Singapore 

CISSE Bamory, President, Du mouvement Espoir d’Afrique pour la Paixl’Education et la Democratie, 

Burkina Faso 

Dhananjay Kumar, Anna University, India 

Amran Rasli, Universiti Teknologi Malayisa, Malaysia 

Farooq Umar, President – Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Pakistan, Pakistan 

Kavita Asnani, Padre Conceicao Engineerng College, Goa University, India 

Alim Al Ayub Ahmed, Faculty of Business, ASA University, Bangladesh 

Anushree Malik, Centre for Rural Development and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology 

(I.I.T.), India 

L'Oreal Annelise Battistelli, United States 

Anca-Monica Ardeleanu, University of Bucharest, Romania 

Editor in Chief 

Tony Montana, Professional Certification Accreditation Board, International Certification Council, 

United States 

American Academic & Scholarly Research Journal 

Copyright © American Academic & Scholarly Research Center 2011 

2


Table of Contents 

Articles 

A novel spectrophotometric for the determination of cephalosporins using 8-hydroxy- 

1, 3, 6-pyrenetrisulfonic acid trisodium salt (HPTS) as a chromogenic reagent 

Abdalla Elbashir 4-17 

COAL POWER UTILIZATION AS AN ENERGY MIX OPTION FOR NIGERIA: A REVIEW 

J.O. Oji 18-24 

Effects of Light on the Intraocular Pressure of Aqueous Humor 

Taslim Reza 25-33 

ENHANCING THE TUTOR MODEL OF INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEMS 

Waheeb A. Abu-Dawwas 34-41 

EVALUATION OF GROUNDWATER QUALITY USING CONTAMINATION INDEX IN PARTS 

OF ALIMOSHO, LAGOS - NIGERIA 

I.S Akoteyon 42-47 

Mobile Knowledge Portals: A new way of Accessing Corporate Knowledge 

Hanadi “M.R” Al-Zegaier 48-56 

RELIGION AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA 

Okechukwu Ajaegbu 57-64 

TEACHING BUSINESS ENGLISH FOR ARAB SPEAKERS 

Mira M. Alameddine 65-70 

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A novel spectrophotometric for the determination of cephalosporins using 8-hydroxy-1, 3, 

6-pyrenetrisulfonic acid trisodium salt (HPTS) as 

a chromogenic reagent 

Abdalla Ahmed Elbashir*1, Shazalia M. Ali Ahmed1 FakhrEldin O. Suliman2 

1University of Khartoum, Faculty of Science, Chemistry Department, 

Khartoum, Sudan, P.O. Box 321 

2Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Sultan Qaboos University, Box 36, Al-Khod 123, Oman 

Corresponding authors: Dr. Abdalla A. Elbashir, Email: hajaae@yahoo.com 

Abstract 

A simple, accurate and precise spectrophotometric method has been proposed for the determination of three 

cephalosporins, namely; cefixime (cefi), cephalexin (ceph) and cefotaxime sodium (cefo) in pharmaceutical 

formulations. The proposed method is based on the derivatization of cephalosporins with 1-hydroxy-3, 6, 8pyrenetrisulfonic 

acid trisodium salt, (HPTS). The optimum experimental conditions have been studied carefully. 

Beer’s law is obeyed over the concentration of 0.1-0.6, 0.3-1.8 and 0.5-3 μg/mL for cefi, ceph and cefo, 

respectively. 

The detection limits were found to be 0.03, 0.14 and 0.15 μg/ mL for cefi, ceph and cefo, respectively, with a linear 

regression correlation coefficient of 0.99902, 0.99728 and 0.99892 for cefi, ceph and cefo, respectively. And 

recovery in range form 97.57-102.45, 91.61-95.6 and 96.25-103.85 for cefi, ceph and cefo, respectively. Effects of 

pH, temperature, standing time and HPTS concentration on the determination of cefi, ceph and cefo, have been 

examined. This method is simple and can be used for the determination of cefi, ceph and cefo in pharmaceutical 

formulations. 

Keywords: Cephalosporins, 1-hydroxy-3, 6, 8-pyrenetrisulfonic acid trisodium salt, (HPTS), Spectrophotometric 

analysis, Pharmaceutical analysis. 

1.Introduction 

Cephalosporins anti bacterial are commonly used to control gram positive and gram negative activity. 

Cephalosporins are the second most important blactams after penicillins for treating infectious diseases 

(Adkinson,1998). Many of these manifestations, such as urticaria and exanthema, are cutaneous, but anaphylactic 

reactions have also been reported (Pumphrey Davis, 1999). 

Chemical structure of cephalosporins drive from the 7-aminocephalosporanic acid (7-ACA) composed of a β-lactam 

ring fused with a dihydrothaizine ring (Fig. 1), but differ in the nature of substituent at the 3- and/or 7-positions of 

the cephem ring (Delgad and Wilson; 2004; Dollery,1999). 

Many methods have been described for the quantitative determination of cephalosporins included 

spectrophotometry (Saleh et al., 2001;2003; Ayad et al., 1999; Ahmed et al., 2011, spectrofluorometery (Elbashir et 

al., 2012; Aly et al., 1996). High performance liquid chromatography (Misztal, 1998; Moore, 1991; Baranowska et 

al., 00 Tsai and Chen 00 e iego lar a, et al., 005 rensen and nor, 000 Chen et al., 003 ) , 

potentiometry Lima et al., 1 ) and voltammetry anet al., 2000). These methods were time-consuming, 

tedious, and dedicated to sophisticated and expensive analytical instruments. Spectrophotometric methods are the 

most convenient techniques because of their inherent simplicity, high sensitivity, low cost, and wide availability in 

quality control laboratories. Unfortunately, the spectrophotometric methods that have been reported for 

determination of cephalosporins in their pharmaceutical formulations were associated with some major 

disadvantages such as the lack of selectivity, tedious extraction procedures and time-consuming. The official 

procedures in pharmaceutical preparations utilize high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) (United States 

4


Pharmacopoeia 2008). Therefore, the development of new alternative spectrophotometric method for the 

determination of cephalosporins that can overcome the disadvantages of the existing methods was very essential. 

The pH-sensitive fluorescent dye 1-hydroxy-3, 6, 8-pyrenetrisulfonic acid trisodium salt also known as pyranine 

(HPTS) has distinct absorption band in the visible light region, and has thus utilized in many aqueous-phase CO2 

optical sensors (Weigl and Wolfbeis, 1995; Wolfbeis et al., 1998; Neurauter et al., 1998; Ertekin et al., 2003; 

Malins , and MacCraith, 1998; Von Bultzingslowen et al., 2002; Nivens et al., 2002; Naga et al., 1998). However 

this is the first time that HPTS used as chromogenic reagent for determination of cephalosporins in their 

pharmaceutical formulations, HPTS contains three sulfonate groups at the positions, 1, 3, 6 which make it suitable 

for nucleophilic substitution reactions with cephalosporins, therefore in this work a rapid spectrophotometric method 

for determining the content of cefi, ceph and cefo in pharmaceutical formulations which is based on the reaction of 

HPTS with cephalosporin was reported. 

2. Experimental 

2.1. Apparatus 

All of the spectrophotometric measurements were made with a Double beam UV0011 ultraviolet-visible 

spectrophotometer provided with matched 1-cm quartz cells (SHIMADZU Japan) also temperature controller was 

used for the spectrophotometer measurements. pH meter model pH 211(HANNA Italy) was used for adjusting pH. 

2.2. Reagents and solutions 

All reagents were of analytical reagent grade. Double distilled water was used in all experiments. 

The standards of cefi, ceph and cefo were supplied by (Orchid Chemicals and Pharms LTD). 

HPTS was supplied by (Aldrich chemical Co., St. Louis, USA) 

2.2.1. Pharmaceutical formulation. 

The following available commercial preparations were analyzed: 

(1) cefi capsules (AMIPHARMA laboratories, Sudan), labeled to contain 200 mg cefi per capsule. 

(2) ceph monohydrate capsules(AMIPHARMA laboratories, Sudan), labeled to contain 500 mg ceph per capsule. 

(3) cefo for injection (KILITCH drugs, India) labeled to contain 1000 mg cefo per injection. 

2.2.2. Stock standard solution of cefi,ceph and cefo (1000μg/mL) 

An accurately weighed 0.1000 g standard sample of the three drugs was dissolved in methanol for cefi and in double 

distilled water for ceph and cefo, transferred into a 100 mL standard flask and diluted to the mark with methanol for 

cefi and with double distilled water for ceph and cefo and mixed well. This stock solution was further diluted to 

obtain working solutions in the ranges of 0.1-0.6, 0.3-1.8 and 0.5-3 μg/ mL for cefi,ceph and cefo, respectively. 

2.2.3. 1-hydroxy-3, 6, 8-pyrenetrisulfonic acid (0.02%, 0.025% w/v) 

An accurately weighed 0.02 and 0.025 g of HPTS was dissolved in double distilled water, transferred into a 100 mL 

standard flask and diluted to the mark with double distilled water and mixed well to prepare(0.02% and 0.025% 

w/v), respectively. The solution was freshly prepared and protected from light during use. 

2.2.4. Buffer solutions 

Buffer solution of pH 12.0 was prepared by mixing 25 mL of 0.2 M KCl with 12 mL of 0.2 M NaOH, and buffer of 

pH 13.0 was prepared by mixing 25 mL of 0.20 M KCl solution with 65 mL of 0.20 M NaOH solution, in 100 mL 

volumetric flask and adjusted by a pH meter. Buffer solutions of different pH value were also prepared. 

2.2.5. Sample Solutions 

The contents of 20 capsules or the contents of 20 injection powder were evacuated and well mixed. Then an 

accurately weighed amount equivalent to 100 mg was transferred into a 100 mL calibrated flask, and dissolved in 

about 40mL in methanol for cefi and in double distilled water for ceph and cefo. The contents of the flask were 

swirled, sonicated for 5 minutes, and then completed to volume with methanol for cefi and with double distilled 

water for ceph and cefo. The contents were mixed well and filtered rejecting the first portion of the filtrate. The 

prepared solution was diluted quantitatively with methanol for cefi and with double distilled water for ceph and cefo 

to obtain a suitable concentration for the analysis. 

2.2.6. General recommended procedure 

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About 1.00 mL of (1-6, 3-18 and 5-30 μg/mL) for cefi, ceph and cefo, respectively, were transfer in to 10mL 

volumetric flask subsequently, 3mL of pH 12.0 for cefi,3 and 2mL of pH 13.0 for ceph and cefo respectively were 

added and 1 mL of 0.025% HPTS were added for cefi and 1 mLof 0.02% HPTS solution was added for ceph and 

cefo the solution was heated in a thermostat at 80℃ for 15 minutes, at 85℃ for 10 minutes and at 60 for 15 minutes 

for cefi ,ceph and cefo respectively, the mixture was diluted with methanol for cefi or double distilled water for ceph 

and cefo. The absorbance of the solution was measured at 470,480 and 479 nm for cefi, ceph and cefo respectively 

against a reagent blank prepared in the same manner but containing no drugs. 

2.2.7. Determination of the stoichiometric ratio of the reaction (Job’s method) 

The Job’s method of continuous variation was employed Job, 1 ). Equimolar 5×10−3 M) methanolic solutions 

of cefi and aqueous solution for ceph, cefo and HPTS were prepared. Series of 10-mL portions of the master 

solutions of cefi, ceph and cefo and HPTS were made up comprising different complementary proportions (0:10, 

1:9, 2:8, 3:7, 4:6, 5:5, 6:4, 7:3,8:2, 9:1, 10:0), The solution was further treated as described under the general 

recommended procedures. 

3. Results and discussion 

3.1. Absorption spectra 

As shown in (Fig. 2) the absorption spectrum of HPTS in aqueous solution shows a maximum absorption at 400nm. 

The investigated drugs has no absorption in the range 400-800 nm, taking cefo as a representative example it gives 

absorption maximum at 237 nm, the interaction colored product of cefo with HPTS shows absorption maximum at 

479 nm. 

3.2. Determination of stoichiometric ratio 

Under the optimum conditions Table.2. The stoichiometric ratio between HPTS and each of investigated 

cephalosporins was found to be 1: 1 (Fig.3). Based on this ratio, the reaction pathways were postulated to be 

proceeded as shown in scheme 1. cefi, ceph and cefo were found to be susceptible for reaction with HPTS producing 

agreen color products. 

3.3. Optimization of Derivatization reaction and Spectrophotometric procedure 

3.3.1. Effect of pH 

The effects of pH on the reaction of cefi, ceph and cefo with HPTS were examined by varying the pH from 4.0 to 

13.0, The results revealed that cefi, ceph and cefo have difficulty to react with HPTS in acidic media (Fig. 4).This 

was possibly due to the existence of the amino group of cefi, ceph and cefo in the form of hydrochloride salt, thus it 

loses its nucleophilic substitution capability. As the pH increased, the readings increased rapidly, as the amino group 

of cefi, ceph and cefo (in the hydrochloride salt) turns into the free amino group, thus facilitating the nucleophilic 

substitution (Darwish et al., 2005). The maximum readings were attained at pH values of 12.0 for cefi and 13.0 for 

ceph and cefo. At pH values more than 12.0 for cefi and more than 13.0 fore ceph and cefo a decrease in the 

readings occurred. This was attributed probably to the increase in the amount of hydroxide ions that hold back the 

reaction of cefi, ceph and cefo with HPTS. 

3.3.2. Effects of reaction temperature and time 

The effect of temperature on the reaction was also studied by varying the temperature from 25 °C to 90 °C for cefi 

,ceph and cefo. The reaction does not go in room temperature and the highest absorbance is obtained at 80 °C for 15 

minutes for cefi and at 85°C for 10 minutes for ceph and at 60 for 15 minutes for cefo °C. (Figs. 5 and 6). 

3.3.3. Effect of HPTS concentration 

The studying of HPTS concentrations revealed that the reaction was dependent on HPTS reagent. The highest 

absorption was attained when the concentration of HPTS was 0.025% for cefi and 0.02% for ceph and cefo. (Fig. 7). 

From the previously described experiments the optimum conditions for the reaction of HPTS with cefi, ceph and 

cefo were summarized in Table 2. 

3.4. Validation of the Method 

3.4.1. Linearity and Limits of Detection. 

In the proposed methods, linear plots (n = 6) with good correlation coefficients were obtained in the concentration 

ranges of 0.1-0.6, 0.3-1.8 and 0.5-3 µg/mL for cefi, ceph and cefo, respectively Table 3. The limits of detection 

6


LO ) and quantitation LOQ) were determined using the formula: LO or LOQ = κ a/b, where κ =3.3 for LO 

and 10 for LOQ, SDa is the standard deviation of the intercept, and b is the slope (ICH, 1996). The LOD values 

were 0.03, 0.14 and 0.15 μg / mL for cefi, ceph and cefo, respectively. 

3.4.2. Accuracy and precision 

The accuracy and precision of the proposed spectrophotometric method were determined at three concentration 

levels of cefi, ceph and cefo by analyzing three replicate samples of each concentration. The relative standard 

deviations (R.S.D.) for the results did not exceed 3% Table 4, proving the high reproducibility of the results and the 

precision of the method. This good level of precision was suitable for quality control analysis of cefi, ceph and cefo 

in their pharmaceutical formulations. 

3.4.3. Robustness 

Robustness was examined by evaluating the influence of small variation in the method variables on its analytical 

performance. In these experiments, one parameter was changed whereas the others were kept unchanged, and the 

recovery percentage was calculated each time. It was found that small variation in the method variables did not 

significantly affect the procedures; recovery values were shown in Table 5. 

3.5. Application of the Method 

The proposed method was applied to some pharmaceutical formulations containing cefi, ceph and cefo. The results 

in Table 6 indicate the high accuracy of the proposed method for the determination of the studied drugs. The 

proposed method has the advantage of being virtually free from interferences by excipients. The percentages were 

102.40 ± 0.439, 101.81± 1.24 and 97.60 ± 1.15 for cefi, ceph and cefo, respectively Table 6. This results were 

compared with that obtained by reported spectrophotometric method (Saleh et al., 2003) by statistical analysis with 

respect to the accuracy (by t-test) and precision (by F-test). No significant differences were found between the 

calculated and theoretical values of t- and F-tests at 95% confidence level proving similar accuracy and precision in 

the determination of cephalosporins by both methods. 

4. Conclusion 

The present paper described for the first time the application of HPTS as analytical reagent in the development of 

simple, sensitive, and accurate spectrophotometric method, for the determination of cefi, ceph and cefo in 

pharmaceutical formulations. The described method is superior to the previously reported spectrophotometric 

methods in terms of the simplicity and sensitivity. The proposed method has comparable analytical performances 

and devoid from any potential interference. This gives the advantage of flexibility in performing the analysis on any 

available instrument. Therefore, this method can be recommended for the routine analysis of cefi, ceph and cefo in 

quality control laboratories. 

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dioxide gas detection. . Analyst 123:2373-2376. 

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53:723-724. 

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monohydrate and its determination by differential pulse voltammetry. J. Pharm. Biomed.,23:263-273. 

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353:1157-1158. 

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complexation of certain cephalosporins with chloranilic acid. Anal. Sci. 19:281-287. 

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[25] Saleh, G.A., Askal, H.F., Radwan, M.F., Omar, M.A. . (2001) Use of charge-transfer complexation in the 

spectrophotometric analysis of certain cephalosporins. Talanta., 54:1205-1215. 

Sørensen, L.K., Snor, L.K. (2000) Determination of cephalosporins in raw bovine milk by high-performance liquid 

chromatography. . J. Chromatogr.A., 882:145-151. 

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and microbore liquid chromatography. Biomed Chromatogr., 14:274-278. 

[27] Validation of analytical procedure MIcoHI, 1996, 1450. 

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O.S., . (2002). Sol–gel based optical carbon dioxide sensor employing dual luminophore referencing for application 

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ion-pairing. . Anal. Chim. Acta., 302::249-254. 

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Table 1 chemical structure of the investigated cephalosporin antibiotics. 

name R1 R2 R3 generation 

cephalexine 

cefixime 

cefotaxime sodium 

s 

H 

C 

NH 2 

H2N N 

C 

NOCH2CO2H S 

N 

C 

NOCH 3 

Table 2 Optimum conditions for the reaction of cefi, ceph and cefo with HPTS 

9 

-CH 3 

-CH=CH 2 

O 

CH 2 O C 

CH 3 

-H 

-H 

-Na 

first 

third 

third


Table 3 Summary of quantitative parameters and statistical data using the proposed procedure 

Drug sample content (µg/mL) added (µg/mL) found (µg/mL) recovery (% ± RSD)* 

Cefi 0.1 

parameter drug HPTS derivatives 

0.1 

0.1 

0.2 

0.3 

0.4 

Cefi ceph cefo 

Linear range(µg/ml) 0.1-0.6 0.3-1.8 0.5-3 

LOD(µg/ml) 0.03 0.14 0.15 

LOQ (µg/ml) 0.09 0.43 0.45 

Slope 0.29971 0.1219 

Condition cefi ceph cefo 

pH 12.0 13.0 13.0 

Volume of buffer 3 ml 3 ml 2 ml 

Temperature 80 °C 85 °C 60 °C 

Reaction time 15 minutes 10 minutes 15 minutes 

HPTS concentration 0.025% 0.02% 0.02% 

10 

0.29 

0.407 

0.512 

0.16086 

Intercept 0.07327 0.21533 0.00967 

Correlation coefficient(r) 0.99902 0.99728 0.99892 

Molar absorptivity, ε (L mol −1 

cm −1 ) 

1.5×10 6 1.08×10 6 4.9×10 5 

97.57 ± 1.24 

101.82 ± 0.769 

102.45 ± 0.335 

Ceph 0.2 0.2 0.366 91.61 ± 0.384 

Table 4 Recovery of 

the proposed 

methods


0.2 

0.2 

Cefo 0.3 

0.3 

0.3 

0.8 

1.4 

0.3 

1.3 

2.3 

11 

0.94 

1.53 

0.61 

1.54 

2.7 

94.33 ± 0.45 

95.60 ± 0.37 

101.67 ± 0.463 

96.25 ± 1.93 

103.85 ± 1.12 

* Recovery was calculated as the amount found/amount taken×100. Values are mean ± R.S.D. for 3 determinations 

Table 5 Robustness of the proposed spectrophotometric method. 

Recommended condition cefi Recovery% ± SD* ceph Recovery% ± SD* cefo* Recovery% ± SD* 

Standard 98.90 ± 1.08 99.28 ± 1.60 99.60 ±1.00 

pH 11.8 

12.2 

HPTS concentration (wt/v %) .02 

temperature℃ 

.03 

75 

85 

reaction time(min) 13 

*values are mean of 3 determinations 

17 

99.17 ± 0.26 

103.61 ± 0.21 

96.11 ± 0.61 

103.06 ± 1.26 

102.78 ± 0.32 

99.44 ± 0.31 

98.33 ± 0.36 

97.78 ± 0.50 

12.8 

13.2 

0.015 

0..025 

80 

90 

8 

12 

105.19 ± 2.04 

95.60 ± 0.80 

95.20 ± 1.00 

99.70 ± 0.89 

98.33 ± 1.25 

96.54 ± 1.29 

95.63 ± 1.40 

96.99 ± 1.27 

12.8 

13.2 

0.015 

0.025 

55 

65 

23 

28 

95.36 ± 2.88 

96.81 ± 1.09 

97.54 ± 1.01 

98.05 ± 0.90 

97.64 ± 0.78 

101.15 ± 0.35 

101.71 ± 1.54 

99.98 ± 1.32


Table 6 Determination of the studied drugs in their pharmaceutical dosage forms. 

drug Pharmaceutical product Proposed method ± 

SD* 

cefi 200 mg of cefi /capsule 102.46% ± 0.40 

ceph 500 mg of ceph 

monohydrate/capsule 

98.20% ± 0.40 

12 

Reported 

method [5] ± SD 

t value f value 

102.10 ± 1.00 2.01 6.25 

98.50 ± 0.80 1.68 4.00 

Cefo 1000 mg of cefo/injection 97.60% ±0 .2 97.70 ± 0.50 1.12 6.25 

*Five determinations were used for the proposed and reported methods the tabulated t and f at 95%confidence limit are t= 

2.26 and f= 6.39


Figure (1) Chemical struture of cephalosporin. 

a 

b 

c 

Figure 2 Absorption spectra of (a) cefo (3µg/mL), (b) Absorption spectra of HPTS (0.02%) , (c) Absorption spectra of cefo (3µg/mL) with HPTS 

0.02% 

13


Figure (3) Job , s plots of continuous variation of product: cefi; ceph; cefo; with HPTS. Va: HPTS (5×10 −3 M), Vb:(cefi,ceph and cefo) 

(5×10 −3 M);Va+Vb=10mL. 

14

Me 

Me 


COOH 

O 

S 

S 

H 

H 

ceph 

COOH 

O 

H 

H 

O 

S 

O 

-ONa+ 

O 

NH 

H2N O 

NH 

NH 

green product 

H 

HO 

O 

S 

O 

Scheme (1) Proposed reaction pathway of ceph with HPTS 

H 

+ 

O_ Na + 

O 

O_ Na + 

15 

O_ Na + 

O O 

S 

S 

O 

HPTS 

OH 

O 

S 

+ NaHSO 3 

O 

O_ Na+

absorbance 


0.5 

0.4 

0.3 

0.2 

0.1 

0 

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 

Figure 4. Effect of pH on absorbance of product cefi; ceph; cefo; with HPTS. 

absorbance 

0.5 

0.4 

0.3 

0.2 

0.1 

0 

30 40 50 60 70 80 

Figure 5. Effect of temperature on absorbance of product cefi; ceph; cefo with HPTS. 

pH 

temperature℃ 

16 

cefo 

cefi 

ceph 

cefo 

cefi 

ceph

absorbance 


0.5 

0.4 

0.3 

0.2 

0.1 

0 

5 10 15 20 25 30 

Figure 6. Effect of reaction time on absorbance of product cefi; ceph; cefo with HPTS. 

absorbance 

0.5 

0.4 

0.3 

0.2 

0.1 

time (minutes) 

0 

0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 

HPTS concentration (w/v%) 

Figure 7. Effect of HPTS concentration on absorbance of product cefi; ceph; cefo with HPTS. 

17 

cefo 

cefi 

ceph 

cefo 

cefi 

ceph


COAL POWER UTILIZATION AS AN ENERGY MIX OPTION FOR NIGERIA: A 

REVIEW 

J.O. Oji 1, *, N. Idusuyi2, B. Kareem3 

1Prototype Engineering Development Institute Ilesa, Osun State. Nigeria 

2Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ibadan, Oyo State. Nigeria 

3Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Akure. Nigeria 

*Corresponding Author: ojiortega@yahoo.com 

Abstract 

This work reviews the impact of coal energy utilization as a viable energy mix option for Nigeria. Adequate power 

supply is unavoidably a prerequisite for any nation’s growth and development. Electric power drives 

industrialization, which improves communication, helps innovation in science and technology, provides sound 

healthcare delivery system and generally improves the standard of living of citi ens. Nigeria’s economy face 

growing challenges: a widening trade imbalance, growing competition from developed countries, a collapse of big 

manufacturing companies, and a sharp increase in the cost of doing business, all owing basically to energy and its 

related infrastructural costs. Recent years have seen government’s desire to increase electricity generation through 

the utilization of its abundant coal deposits but the challenges are still not surmounted. These challenges and 

recommendations on the way to overcome them are also highlighted. It is the issue of “getting it right the first time” 

that this work emphasizes hence it is among the short range reviews of the energy problem in Nigeria. 

Keywords: Coal, energy, power generation, energy demand and supply, technological opportunities, energy mix. 


It is a well known fact that adequate power supply and national development are not mutually exclusive concepts. 

Also the Earth as a resource system has a limited capacity for supporting a growing human population with an 

intensive exchange of materials and energy with its environment, hence the need for a growing awareness to achieve 

a more sustainable societal use of materials (Karlsson, 1999). One important material in this context is coal. Coal is 

a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock normally occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called 

coal beds or coal seams. Coal is composed primarily of carbon along with variable quantities of other elements, 

chiefly sulphur, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, [(Van Krevelen, 1957); (Gluskoter, 1975); (Speight 1994)]. 

Coal begins as layers of plant matter-accumulate at the bottom of a body of water. For the process to continue the 

plant matter must be protected from biodegradation and oxidation, usually by mud or acid water (Francis, 1961). 

The wide shallow seas of the Carboniferous period provided such conditions. This trapped atmospheric carbon in the 

ground in immense peat bogs that eventually were covered over and deeply buried by sediments under which they 

metamorphosed into coal. Over time, the chemical and physical properties of the plant remains (believed to mainly 

have been fern-like species antedating more modern plant and tree species) were changed by geological action to 

create a solid material (Speight, 2005). Coal, a fossil fuel, is the largest source of energy for the generation of 

electricity worldwide, as well as one of the largest worldwide anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide emissions. 

Coal is extracted from the ground by mining, either underground by shaft mining through the seams or in open pits. 

[(Montgomery, 1978); (Vorres, 1993); (Gluskoter, 1975)].World coal consumption was about 6,743,786,000 metric 

tonnes in 2006 (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2008a) and is expected to increase 48% to 9.98 billion 

short tons by 2030 (EIA International Energy Statistics, 2010). China is reportedly the world’s top producer of coal 

18


U. . Energy Information Administration, 00 b). Coal is also used to generate more than 0% of Australia’s 

electricity (Gladstone Centre for Clean Coal, 2007). South Africa's coal is obtained from collieries that range from 

among the largest in the world to small-scale producers. The major use of coal in South Africa is for power 

generation and the petrochemical industries. Nigeria has the potentials to produce cheaper electricity from coal to 

solve its perennial power problem through diversification of her energy base (Nonso, 2010). It is heart-warming to 

note that three Coal fired power plants each with an installed capacity of 1,000 Mega Watts are due to commence 

full operation in three states of the federation namely Enugu, Gombe, and Benue States although the power 

conversion technologies and adaptation methods are still unclear [(FRCN, 2011); (Nnaji, 2012)]. 

Apart from hydro-power station, coal still offer the cheapest source of electricity generation that would also 

guarantee adequate energy mix fit for the country’s industrialisation and other uses. Fortunately, Nigeria provides a 

veritable and safe ground for investors, thus the need a review of coal power utilization to fix the energy problem 

cannot be overemphasized. 

2.HISTORY OF COAL IN NIGERIA 

Nigeria is one of the tropical countries of the world which lies approximately between 4 o and 13 o with landmass of 

9.24 x 105 km 2 (Bala et al., 2000). Nigerian Coal is one of the most bituminous in the world owing to its low 

sulphur and ash content and therefore the most environmental friendly. There are nearly three billion 

(3,000,000,000) tonnes of indicated reserves in seventeen identified coalfields and over 600 million tonnes of 

proven reserves in Nigeria. Some of the states where coal has been discovered in commercial quantity include 

Enugu, Benue, Kogi and Plateau States (Anaekwe, 2010). In 1909, coal was discovered and mined at Ogbete, 

Amansiodo, Ezinmo, Inyi, Onyeama in Enugu state, Ogwashi-Azagba Lignite Field in Delta state, Owupka Mine in 

Benue State, and Ogboyoga I & II Coal field in Kogi. The Ogbete drift mine opened in 1915, but was closed and 

flooded during the Civil War. It reopened in 1972, and became the country's largest coal mining operation until its 

closure. The Ogbete mine's operations and others in the country were merged into a new corporation in 1950: The 

Nigerian Coal Corporation. The NCC was tasked with exploring coal resources with production capacity of five 

hundred tons a day for seven years and held a monopoly on coal and coke mining, production, and sales until 1999 

[(Godwin, 1980); (Daily Times of Nigeria, 1962]. Nigeria's coal industry suffered a blow in the 1950s when oil was 

discovered. Up until this point, the Nigerian Railway Corporation was the largest consumer of coal in the country. 

However, after the discovery of oil, the Railway Corporation began to replace its coal burning trains with dieselpowered 

engines. An additional negative impact came when the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria began converting 

its power generation equipment from coal to diesel and gas as well [(Godwin, 1980); (Daily Times of Nigeria, 

1962)].The Nigerian Civil War also negatively impacted coal production; many mines were abandoned during the 

war. Following the war, production never completely recovered and coal production levels were erratic. Attempts at 

mechanizing production ended badly, as both the implementation and maintenance of imported mining equipment 

proved troublesome and hurt production (Godwin, 1980). 

Coal exploration in Nigeria started as far back as 1916. Available data show that Coal (mainly sub-bituminous steam 

Coals except for the Lafia-Obi bituminous Coking Coal) occurrences in Nigeria have been indicated in more than 22 

Coalfields spread over 13 States of the Federation. The proven Coal reserves so far in Nigeria total about 639 

million metric tonnes while the inferred reserves sum up to 2.75 billion metric tonnes (Obi, 2005). M2M Workshop- 

Nigeria 005) has extensively reported Nigeria’s coal mines, their type, estimated reserves (million tonnes), proven 

reserves (million tonnes), depth of coal (m), and mining method(s). The determination of this information is a 

complex exercise as new findings are made thus; any estimate is likely to be out of date when it is published (Eastop 

and McConkey, 2002). 

19


3.ENERGY DEMAND AND SUPPLY IN NIGERIA 

It has been estimated by experts that a coal powered plant would cost one-sixth the cost of powering the plant by gas 

and due to its use in powering railways, coal mining and processing is highly desirable (Anaekwe, 2010). Attempts 

have been made to assist the Nigeria over its deplorable power situation, through exploration of the vast coal 

deposits as an alternative source for electricity generation (Nonso, 2010). A feasibility study conducted by Behre 

Dolbear in 2006 indicates that electricity demand in Nigeria is projected to increase from the current 3.5 Giga 

WATTS (GW) to between 12 and 15 GW in 2025. Coal is expected to provide for a significant portion of the 

projected electric power demand (about 6 GW to 7.5 GW). Consequently, coal demand is projected to increase to 

19-24 million tonnes by 2025 (Ogunsola, 2008). World Bank reports underground and surface coal production 

potential to be 200,000 to 600,000 tonnes per year and 400,000 to 800,000 tonnes per year respectively (World 

Bank, 1 3). This will be significantly higher in the future if coal is to play a major role in meeting the country’s 

projected increase in electric power demand (Ogunsola, 2008). The current electricity supply in the country does not 

meet national demand. The estimated daily power generation was about 3,700MW as at end-December 2009 while 

the peak load forecast for the same period was 5,103MW, based on the existing connections to the grid, which does 

not take account of suppressed demand. Projected electricity demand has been translated into demand for grid 

electricity and peak demand on the bases of assumptions made for transmission and distribution losses, auxiliary 

consumption, load factor and declining non-grid generation. Figure 2 shows that for a 13% GDP growth rate, the 

demand projections rose from 5,746MW in the base year of 2005 to 297,900MW in the year 2030 which translates 

to construction of 11,686MW every year to meet the demand (Sambo, 2008). 

Electricity production in Nigeria over the last 40 years has varied from gas-fired, oil fired, hydroelectric power 

stations to coal-fired stations with hydroelectric power systems and gas fired systems taking precedence. Presently 

there are a total of 16 power plants in Nigeria 10 owned by Power Holding company of Nigeria and another six 

plants belonging to independent power producers. The summary of the installed and available electrical capacity in 

the Nigerian generating stations are shown in\figure 3 and table 1. 

4.CHALLENGES 

According to Sambo (2009) and Emovon et al (2011), some of the factors militating against the growth and 

development of the power sector and concurrently the coal industry in Nigeria include: 

� Host community discontent. 

� Environmental degradation in the mining area. 

� Health and safety practices in the mining industry. 

� Inadequate financial & fiscal Incentives in the mining Industry. 

� Inadequate maintenance attitude of power plants. 

� Poor maintenance planning. 

� Inadequate funding. 

� Poor electricity pricing. 

� Monopoly. 

� Lack of energy mix. 

� Vandalization of Generation facilities. 

� Poor inventory management. 

20


5.RECOMMENDATIONS 

Sambo (2009) has identified the way forward for the effective utilization of coal and its related clean technologies. 

These are but not limited to: 

� Full implementation of the National Energy Policy and the National Energy Master plan. 

� Provision of incentives to the local community and encouragement of grassroot participation. 

� Enhancing public enlightenment & discouraging community agitation. 

� Enforcing environmental protection law. 

� Improving the legal, regulatory, financial, institutional, and other conditions necessary to attract investment 

in coal exploration and utilization projects. 

� Energy mix (Emovon et al, 2011). 

6.CONCLUSION 

Coal is used as fuel and in industrial production of tar, gas and non edible oils. Unarguably, the most singular 

impediment to the attainment of the vision 20:2020 in Nigeria is power (electricity) because of the direct bearing it 

has on other economic indicators like unemployment rate and low capacity utilization in the manufacturing sector. 

Nigeria can, against the emphasis on gas for power generation, tap into the rich coal deposit scattered in different 

parts of the country to generate electricity. Nigerians support efforts to improve the current power deficit the country 

is experiencing. With Nigeria’s abundant coal deposits, this is just the time to use this resource to the nation's 

benefit. Clearly, the nation must diversify its power-generation portfolio. Recent power problems have revealed that 

the reliance on Gas and Hydroelectric dams for power have suffered due to interruptions in oil output/supply, 

dwindling seasons and of course, pure corruption. The use of coal and its related technologies in some parts of the 

country would therefore, be a beneficial energy mix for power generation in Nigeria. 

7.REFERENCES 

[1] Anaekwe, E. N. (2010). Investment Opportunity in Nigeria. Available at www.farriconsultingng.blogspot.com 

Retrieved January 10 th 2011. 

[2] Bala, E.J., Ojosu, J.O., and Umar, I.H. 000). “ overnment Policies And Programmes on the evelopment of 

Solar Pv Sub- ector in Nigeria”. Nigeria Journal Of Renewable Energy. 8(1&2): 1-6. 

[3] Daily Times of Nigeria (1962). Coal and Lignite. In Nigeria Year Book. Pp 143. Available online at 

www.onlinenigeria.com/geology. Retrieved February 2 nd 2011. 

[4] Eastop T.D., McConkey A. (2002). Applied Thermodynamics for Engineering Technologists. Fifth Edition. 

Pearson Education (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Indian Branch. Patparganj, India. P 697 

[5] EIA International Energy Statistics (2010). Coal Consumption. Available at 

www.tonto.eia.doe.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject. Retrieved 20 th January 2011. 

[6] Emovon I., Adeyeri M.K., Kareem B. 011). “Power generation in Nigeria Problems and solution,” presented 

at the 2011 International Conference. Nigerian Association for Energy Economics, Abuja, Nigeria. Available online 

at www.naee.org.ng/files/paper1.pdf 

[7] Francis, W. (1961). Coal: Its Formation and Composition, Edward Arnold, London, P. 452 Et Seq. 

21


FRCN (2011). Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria Newscast. 22 nd September, 2011. 7am. Globe Fm 98.5 Bauchi, 

Bauchi State. 

[8] Gladstone Centre for Clean Coal (2007). The Importance of Coal in the Modern World - Australia. Archived on 

August 2 nd , 2007. 

[9] Gluskoter, H. J. (1975). Trace Elements In Fuel. Advances In Chemistry Series 141. American Chemical Society, 

Washington, Dc, Pp. 1–22. 

[10] odwin C. N. 1 0): “The Nigerian Coal Corporation: An Evaluation Of Production Performance 1 0- 

1 7)” Pdf). Quantitative Economic Research Bureau. 

[11] Karlsson S. (1999). Closing the Technospheric Flows of Toxic Metals. Modeling Lead Losses from a Lead- 

Acid Battery System for Sweden. Journal of Industrial Ecology. © Copyright 1999 By the Massachusetts Institute 

of Technology and Yale University. Vol 3, No 1. Pp 24,. 

[12] M2M Workshop - Nigeria (2005). Nigeria’s Country Report on Coal Mine Methane Recovery and use. 

Presented at Methane To Markets Regional Workshop, December 2nd, 2005. Beijing, China. Available online at 

www.methanetomarket.org 

[13] MOMSD (2008). Ministry of Mines and Steel Development Nigeria. Available at http:// 

www.msmd.gov.ng/.../Coal.asp,. Retrieved 5th February 2012. 

[14] Montgomery, W. J. (1978). In Analytical Methods for Coal and Coal Products, Vol. 1, C. K. Karr, Jr. (Editor). 

Academic Press, San Diego, Ca, Chap. 6. 

[15] National Mining Association (2012). Clean Coal Technology. Washington, D.C., 20001 (202) 463-2600. 

Availabe online at www.nma.org. Retrieved April, 12th 2012. 

[16] Nnaji B. 01 ). “Enugu Coal Plant to enerate 1,000MW of Electricity.” In Satureday Punch Newspaper by 

Ozioma Ubabukoh. May 12, 2012. Vol 7123 No 1613. Pp 9 

[17] Nonso (2010). U.S. Coal Experts Arrive Nigeria to Initiate Alternative Power Source. Available online at 

http://www.nairaflash.com. Retrieved January 8, 2011 

[18] Obi T. N. (2005). Opportunities and Challenges of an Integrated Energy Policy for Nigeria - Perspectives from 

a Competing Energy Product –Coal 

[19] Ogunsola O. (2008): Personal Communication with Dr. Olubunmi Ogunsola, Temec. July 7, 2008. Available in 

CMM Global overview: methane to markets. Pp 157-162. 

[20] Sambo A. S. (2009). Prospects of Coal for Power Generation in Nigeria. A Paper Presented at the International 

Workshop on Promotion of Coal for Power Generation, Held at the Nike Lake Resort Hotel, Enugu on 27th-28th 

April, 2009. 

[21] Sambo A.S. (2008). “Matching Electricity upply with emand In Nigeria”, International Association For 

Energy Economics. 

[22] Speight, J. G. (1994). The Chemistry and Technology of Coal, 3rd Ed. Marcel Dekker, New York. 

[23] Speight, J. G. (2005). Handbook of Coal Analysis. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. P 1-2 

22


[24] U.S Energy Information Administration (2008a). World Coal Consumption 1980-2006 

[25] U.S. Energy Information Administration (2008b): World Coal Production, Most Recent Estimate, 1980-2007. 

[26] Van Krevelen, D. W. (1957). Coal Science: Aspects of Coal Constitution. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Chap. 5. 

Vorres, K. . 1 3). Users’ Handboo for the Argonne Premium Coal ample Program. Argonne National 

Laboratory, Argonne, II; National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, Va. 

[27] World Bank (1983). Nigeria: Issues and Options in the Energy Sector. Report by the World Bank. August 1983. 

Available online at www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/page/special/feature.html. retrieved June 13th 2011. 

Tonnes 

900000 

800000 

700000 

600000 

500000 

400000 

300000 

200000 

100000 

0 

1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 2010 

Year 

Figure 1: Coal Production in Nigeria (1916-2002). (Source: Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, 2008) 

Figure 2: Electricity Demand Projection in Nigeria. (Source: Sambo, 2008) 

23 

Coal Prodution in Nigeria


Figure 3: Power Generating Stations versus Installed Capacity. (Source: Emovon et al, 2011). 

24


Effects of Light on the Intraocular Pressure of Aqueous Humor 

Md. Taslim Reza1, Rinku Basak2, Prof. Dr. Md. Ashraful Hoque3 

1Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, American International University-Bangladesh 

2Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, American International University-Bangladesh 

3Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Islamic University of Technology, Bangladesh 

Email: taslimreza@gmail.com 

Abstract 

High Intraocular Pressure (IOP) for longer period of time may guide the eye to different deceases and Glaucoma is 

one of them. Continuous, non-invasive and comfortable way of measuring IOP is necessary to detect the high IOP at 

the very early stage. Few methods are involved widely to measure the IOP in the doctor’s chamber. ome other 

methods can be used by the person himself but those are still in research stage. In this paper, we utilize the basic 

characteristics of white light and also the physical characteristics of aqueous humor and cornea to propose a 

continuous, non-invasive way to measure IOP. The change of intraocular pressure is relates to the change of 

refractive index and that changes are shown with proper plotting. 

Keywords: Light effects, Intraocular Pressure, IOP. 


Eye problem is a great challenge for aged population. The problem increases dramatically with the aging of 

population. Proper detection and timely diagnosis is the best answer for this challenge [1]. The average normal IOP 

is about 15 mmHg but it can vary between 12 and 20 mmHg in a normal eye. There are great individual variations 

and a pressure higher than 21 mmHg does not necessarily damage the eye. On the other hand sometimes an eye 

with an IOP within the normal range does not work properly and thus needs to be treated [2]. Different kinds of 

problems with the eyes become more common. Glaucoma is one of the most common causes for visual disability 

throughout the world [1]. Most of the glaucoma patients are over 65 years old. The human age correlates strongly 

with the visual disabilities. The number of glaucoma patients increases with the aging of the population in the near 

future. In the detection and the treatment of the glaucoma the measurement of the intraocular pressure (IOP) has 

been found to be important. Glaucoma patients often have higher intraocular pressure readings than healthy 

persons. The variation of the intraocular pressure is also significantly higher among the glaucoma patients than 

healthy persons. The measurement of intraocular pressure has been done for a long time in the doctor’s office 

with an applanation tonometer. This leads to measure the pressure within the eye at that very moment and at that 

very position of the patient. If measurements are done more frequently the patient has to go to the doctor every 

time; on the other hand, possible changes may be undetected due to long duration between two measurements. 

For this, some development has been done in order to find a new technology for measuring the intraocular 

pressure in a non-clinical manner. Unfortunately even these new solutions have not solved the problem of 

continuous measurement of even a reliable self-measurement system yet [3]. The measurement of the IOP in a 

non-clinical manner is definitely an important goal for the near future. Even though many attempts have been 

made in order to solve this problem none has proved to be functional in the real life so far [4, 5]. There are a lot of 

patents concerning this topic from the past few years and many ideas have been thrown out in the air. Even still it 

seems that only few radical and original attempts to approach the problem has been made and even fewer seem 

25


to have good possibilities to be the answer to the need for a continuous measurement of the IOP [6, 7, 8, 9]. Most 

of the suggested methods are just an improvement of an existing system or a portable version of an old method 

[10, 11, 12, 13]. 

In this work, a measurement system is proposed for measuring intraocular pressure on the basis of light effects on 

aqueous humor. Effects of light on the intraocular pressure have been studied with the aim of developing a nonclinical 

measurement system. 

2.PROPOSED MEASUREMENT SYSTEM 

In this proposed measurement system the characteristics of white light, propagating from dense medium to light 

medium, is used. The basic phenomenon of aqueous humor is to change its density with respect to the intraocular 

pressure (IOP) of eye also used in this proposed measurement system. One visible contact lens having white light 

source and light intensity sensor could lay on the cornea surface of the eye. Obviously the white light source and 

light intensity sensor will be beyond the visible area of the eye sight. Fig. 1 shows the total hardware arrangement 

of the proposed measurement system. From the basic physical structure of the eye, cornea is denser than that of 

aqueous humor [14]. On the other hand, white light contains different components having different wavelengths 

as shown in table 1. So, when the white light propagating from cornea to aqueous humor, the refractive angle will 

differ from one light component to another. According to the wavelength violet light component will gives the 

minimum refractive angle and red light component produce highest refractive angle. The position of the white 

light source and the light intensity sensor will be in such a way that in the normal intraocular pressure (between 12 

and 20 mmHg) all light component produce the refractive angle more than 90 o . So, the entire light component will 

fully reflect back to the light sensor. When the intraocular pressure rises to more than 20 mmHg, the density of 

aqueous humor will increase a bit and that is why first the violet component of white light will failed to fully 

reflected back and it goes through the aqueous humor. Based on the rise of the IOP, aqueous humor density will 

increase more and more. Due to this change of density of aqueous humor, after the violet component, the blue 

light component and then the green light component will fail to fully reflect back to the light intensity sensor and 

so on. Now by measuring the light intensity using the light intensity senor, the change of intraocular pressure could 

understand. 

3.SIMULATIONS AND RESULTS 

(1) 

The refractive index is represented by the following equation [15] 

2 

n �1 

( 1/ 

2 

n � 2 

2 

2 

�) � a0 

� a1 

� � a2T 

� a3� 

T � a4 

/ � � 2 

5 

2 � 2 

6 

2 � a7 

UV 

IR 

where, n is the refractive index of aqueous humor. 

26 

a 

� � � 

* 

Density, � � � / � , where, � is the density of aqueous humor and 

a 

� � � 

� 

* 

� is the reference density of 1000 kg/m 3 . 

* 

* 

Temperature, T � T /T , where, T is the absolute temperature and T is the reference temperature of 273.15 

K 

2


* 

* 

Wavelength, � � � / � where, � is the light wavelength and � is the reference wavelength of 0.589 μm. 

The density of aqueous humor ρ is written as [16] 

� � � 

�1 � ( p � p ) / E� 

0 / 0 

where, E is the bulk modulus fluid elasticity in N/m 2 , ρ is the final density in kg/m 3 , ρ0 is the initial density in kg/m 3 , 

p is the final pressure in N/m 2 and p0 is the initial pressure in N/m 2 . 

The analytical expressions of refractive index and density of aqueous humor have been simulated using MATLAB. 

After simulation by putting numerical values of all the needed parameters the above equations are computed and 

the results are presented in Fig. 2. According the equation (2) desired range of the aqueous humor pressure is 

converted to density. In this work, the characteristic of aqueous humor is taken as water [17]. The range of the 

density of aqueous humor is taken as 1600 kg/m 3 - 3000 kg/m 3 . 

The change of the refractive index is calculated by using equation (1), where there are three variable factors; i) 

Density, ii) Temperature and iii) Wavelength. Here, temperature and wavelength are kept constant and the change 

of the refractive index is found by only varying the density of aqueous humor. For six different colors light (Red, 

Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Violet) the change of the refractive index is calculated by varying the density and 

the obtained results are plotted as shown in Fig. 2. Obviously one color is a combination of a range of wavelength, 

but in this work only one particular wavelength is taken in the calculations to represent that particular light. Here, 

the bulk modulus fluid elasticity, E is taken as 2.15 10 9 (N/m 2 ). 

From fig. 2 it is observed that the refractive index varies linearly with the variation of density of aqueous humor. It 

is found that the density varies with the variation of pressure in the aqueous humor which further varies the 

refractive index. The change of the refractive index is different for different colors. A maximum variation is 

observed for the violet color, whereas a minimum variation is observed for the red color. 

From the fundamental principle of light critical angle can be represented using Snell’s equation 

n2 

� ) 

(3) 

c � 

arcsin( n1 

where, θc is the critical angle, n2 is the refractive index of light medium and n1 is the refractive index of dense 

medium. 

Aqueous humor works as the light medium with respect to cornea and its normal refractive index is 1.333 as 

water. But this refractive index is changed by the difference of the IOP. Cornea is the dense medium and its 

refractive index is taken as 1.37 [2]. It is assumed that the refractive index of the cornea remain constant for the 

predicted pressure change of aqueous humor. For different refractive index of aqueous humor due to the change 

of IOP of eye, the critical angle of a particular light is being changed. This change is simulated by the equation (3) 

and the obtained results are plotted as shown in Fig. 3. Here, six different colors are considered in the calculations. 

A linear variation of critical angle for different colors has been observed with the variation of refractive index of 

aqueous humor as shown in fig. 3. For different colors the changes of the critical angles are different and the 

27 

(2)


variations are presented in Table 2. It is found that the variation for the violet color is the maximum; on the other 

hand, the variation for the red color is the minimum. 

4.CONCLUSIONS 

Modern light sensing technology is very much capable to trace very small deflection of light. More practical 

research data will give more confident to implement our proposed our method practically. In this paper we neglect 

different parameters, such as the change of the position of the incoming light and position of the sensing 

electronics due to the IOP fluctuation. Those parameters would affect the measurement system. For detail 

calculation those parameters should take into account. This proposed system could give a very easy, non-invasive 

and comfortable IOP measurement system as a hole. 

REFERENCS 

[1] Sherwood M, Yanoff M and J. S. Duker. J. S, Eds. St. Louis (2004). Glaucoma in Ophthalmology, 2nd 

ed.,28:1413-1473. 

[2] Guyton A C, Hall J E (2006). Textbook of medical Physiology, 11 th edition. Elsevier inc, 49:623-624. 

[3] Chen Po-Jui, Rodger D. C, Saati S, Humayun M. S and Yu-Chong Tai (2008). Microfabricated Implantable 

Parylene-Based Wireless Passive Intraocular Pressure Sensors. Microelectromechanical Systems,17( 2):1342-1350. 

[4] Frischholz M (2006). Wireless Pressure Monitoring Systems. Medical Device Technology, 17(7):24-27. 

[5] Stangel K, Kolnsberg S, Hammerschmidt D, Hosticka BJ, Trieu HK, Mokwa W (2001). A Programmable 

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62 

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6: 249-273. 

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eyes. Investig. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., 46(2):409-414. 

28


[14] Kaufman P L, Alm A (2003). Adler’s Physiology of the Eye. Clinical Application 10 th edition, 3:30-32 

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Biomedical Engineering, 58(9):56-62 

29


Fig. 1 Proposed eye pressure measurement system. 

30


(a) 

(c) 

(e) 

Fig. 2 Plot of refractive index vs. density of aqueous humor for (a) red light, (b) orange light, (c) yellow light, (d) 

green light, (e) blue light and (f) violet light. 

31 

(b) 

(d) 

(f)


(a) 

(c) 

(e) 

Fig. 3 Plot of critical angle vs. refractive index of aqueous humor for (a) red light, (b) orange light, (c) yellow light, 

(d) green light, (e) blue light and (f) violet light 

32 

(b) 

(d) 

(f)


Table 1: Different components in white light and there wavelength 

Different lights Wavelengths 

Red 620 - 750 nm 

Orange 590 - 620 nm 

Yellow 570 - 590 nm 

Green 495 - 570 nm 

Blue 450 - 495 nm 

Violet 380 - 450 nm 

Table 2: Critical angle changes due to pressure 

Color Critical angle for 

initial pressure of 

1600 kg/m 3 

Critical angle for 

final pressure of 

33 

3000 kg/m 3 

Difference 

Red 73.61479 o 73.61482 o 0.00003 0 

Orange 74.110215 o 74.110245 o 0.00003 0 

Yellow 74.2157225 o 74.215755 o 0.0000325 0 

Green 74.3087525 o 74.308785 o 0.0000325 0 

Blue 74.8296925 o 74.829725 o 0.0000325 0 

Violet 75.15528 o 75.155315 o 0.000035 0


ENHANCING THE TUTOR MODEL OF INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEMS 

Waheeb A. Abu-Dawwas 

Management Information Systems Department, Qassim University 

Buraidah, Saudi Arabia 

waheeb@qu.edu.sa 

Abstract 

Intelligent Tutoring Systems are systems that have general features that can communicate with a student, define the 

student knowledge and abilities, and can change the teaching strategy. Teaching strategies employed in intelligent 

tutoring systems, as usual, are not based on old and recent developments in pedagogical science and ignoring both 

general principles of teaching and learning theory and many classical teaching methods suggested by practicing 

teachers. This paper describes the use of traditional theories of teaching and learning, in terms of enhancing the tutor 

model of intelligent tutoring systems. 

Keywords: Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS), theory of teaching and learning, teaching strategy, tutor model. 

1. Introduction 

One of the most prospective and advanced directions in the field of designing of computer-based tutoring is the 

development and designing of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS). 

Knowledge about a student is one of the knowledge types that are used by a tutor in the teaching process and are 

necessary for designing "intelligent" tutoring systems. To support "intelligent" teaching process a tutor uses special 

knowledge of three main types: subject matter, teaching strategy, and student. To these special types of 

knowledge we can add the student ability to communicate: to tell, to show something to a student, to understand 

his answer. In ITS the necessary knowledge is explicitly marked and presented, as a rule, with the help of various 

methods and technologies of knowledge engineering. Using this knowledge ITS are capable to implement various 

functions of a tutor (to assist in the process of task accomplishment, to identify the reason of student’s mistakes, 

and to choose the optimal educational step). 

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) are systems that have universal features, which can communicate with a learner, 

can define the student knowledge and abilities, and can change the teaching method so it can be personalized. ITS 

attempt to capture a method of teaching and learning represented by one-to-one human tutoring interaction. 

A review of the recent literature on ITS shows that not much has changed since the 80's with regard to the structure, 

design or methods used to create intelligent tutors [1,6,12,13,16,21,23,27]. Generally, intelligent tutors have the 

following components: 

� domain model 

� student model 

� tutor model 

� interface 

The domain model refers to the topic or curriculum being taught, which contains facts, procedural, and other 

knowledge of a subject matter [22,25]. The student model refers to the student or the user of the ITS, which is 

constantly updated in the teaching course in accordance with the changing characteristics of a student it reflects. 

Such a model is used by all system modules to adapt their work to a particular student [3,22]. The tutor model 

refers to the methods of instruction and how the material shall be presented, which is presents the knowledge of 

34


an expert-pedagogic about organization and support for the task-oriented teaching process. Based on teaching 

strategy and taking into account a student model the tutor model provides for the management of teaching 

activity [3,9,25]. The interface allows communication between the student and the other models of the ITS, which 

is containing the knowledge that is necessary to support interaction with a student. This model provides for the 

communication with a student in a convenient and understandable form and also converts questions and answers 

of a student in the form accepted by the other models. 

A student learns from an ITS by solving problems. The system selects a problem and compares its solution with 

that of the student, and then it performs a diagnosis based on the differences. After giving feedback, the system 

reassesses and updates, the student skills model and the entire cycle is repeated. As the system is assessing what 

the student knows, it is also considering what the student needs to know, which part of the curriculum is to be 

taught next, and how to present the material. It then selects the problems accordingly. 

This paper is structured as follows: First, we demonstrate an overview of ITS components, followed by ITS 

classification. Then the teaching and learning theories description. Then results and discussion are presented. 

Finally, we provide a conclusion. 

A. 

B. 2. Classification of ITS 

In the literature various types of ITS classification are mentioned [14,24]. Most often they are classified by their 

purpose in the teaching process. The classification of ITS in accordance with their goals [15]: 

� Consultation (Teaching through experimentation) 

� Diagnose (Error diagnosis for task solutions) 

� Management (Teaching concepts and abilities (skills) based on student’s knowledge modeling) 

� Companion (Tracking the user’s actions and help him in case of erroneous or irrational actions) 

Consultation type of ITS represents a system designed for teaching by means of experimentation. The teaching is 

carried out in the process of active interaction with a certain, in a special way prepared, teaching medium. A 

student when experimenting with a medium tries his ideas and hypothesis and receives in response answers. 

Diagnose system is intended to detect a student’s misconceptions of a subject matter, as a result of which he 

commits errors when solving a certain type of tasks. Diagnose type of ITS is composed of interface, task solution 

expert systems, error diagnosing expert system, and a student model. 

Management system is designed to control and manage the cognitive activities of a student. Management type of 

ITS contains all components that are shown in the figure 2, with distinguish concepts of teaching and abilities 

(skills), corresponding programs are called teaching and training programs. In spite of all this, the main difference 

of teaching programs from training programs is the presence of goals of study for new material in the teaching 

programs. 

A companion system is designed to monitor a user’s activity when the user is working in a certain (tools) system 

and to assist him in detecting erroneous or irrational actions. A companion type of ITS tries to understand what a 

user is doing, to assess how the user is doing this and make a decision, whether it is necessary to help him, and if 

yes then how to provide this assistance. A companion type of ITS contains all components of ITS but unlike a 

management type of ITS it: 

35


� does not know the goal of a user’s activity and has to forecast, which expands the functions of the system 

in terms of errors diagnosis; 

� is less communicative as not to distract a user from his work. 

3. Teaching and learning theories 

A comparative analysis of the existing ITS [4,6,10,18] and methods of tutoring showed that, in general, ITS do not 

take into account individual cognitive characteristics of a student. Usually such a system assesses the level of 

knowledge, and rarely – it divides students into several main types by progress. There is a lack of adaptation of 

forms and methods of knowledge presentation according to cognitive preferences. Additionally, strategies of 

teaching used in ITS, as a rule, are: 

� not based on the achievements of the pedagogical science; 

� not adaptive, do not contain a diagnostic component and cannot automatically concord to the personal 

characteristics of a learner; 

� implemented as a scenario containing teaching material. Such a scenario requires a strict preplanning of 

dialogue behavior of a student and a tutor. This, in turn, does not allow for effectively consider of user’s 

cognitive characteristics. 

While teaching strategy (tutor model) represents one of the four basic components of ITS, authors of systems 

described in the literature generally ignore findings from research in teaching and learning processes. 

Providing a methodological basis, teaching and learning theories should have to be applied in teaching strategy 

design. To date, however, instead of a complete and formalized system, the teaching and learning theory rather 

exists as a set of relatively isolated units [8]: 

� Teaching and learning philosophy; 

� Teaching substance; 

� Learner and learning material relationships; 

� Teaching and activities. 

3.1 Teaching and learning philosophy 

The teaching and learning philosophy is discussed in the literature in the following trends: structuralism, 

constructivism, activity-orientedness learning, and multi-link teaching. 

In a more general case, structuralism can be described with the central idea of knowledge existing as multiple 

"chunks" or fragments, rather than a homogeneous structure. Another distinctive feature is the juxtaposition of 

knowledge structure, and their use and representing. Structure thus appears as more important than the way of 

representing. Obviously, the author's adherence to structuralism is reflected in the strategy advanced. For 

instance, knowledge conceived as fragmentary, will produce the "teaching episode" strategy. Moreover, the 

concept of fragmentary knowledge will easily take us to the concept of a fragmentary teaching process [19]. 

Whereas a non-structuralist researcher expects that all parts of unknown material are learned with equal facility 

(or difficulty), the structuralist believes that different mental efforts are required, depending on whether the 

student should create a new mental model, or modify or supplement an existing one. 

The term of constructivism is heavily used today in discussing of educational problems in general, and teaching 

strategy design in particular. Constructivism means a position implying that human knowledge depends on two 

interacting factors: external (teaching) stimulus and preceding mental experience. The proposition of learning 

36


governed by previous mental experience is central in teaching and learning theory. Constructivism can be regarded 

as a theory fitting between two extremes: cases of external stimuli acting as governing factors and adequate 

knowledge transmission mechanism, and cases of dominating previous mental experience and inadequate 

transmission model. Constructivist philosophy maintains that teaching is not the only cause for learning but rather 

one of such causes, acting as external teaching stimuli. Simplified constructivism denies the necessity and 

possibility of learning through knowledge transmission, suggesting exploring the subject of learning from past 

mental experience as the unique learning method. 

Activity-orientedness learning addresses the following problem: "Should the learner act on material to be learned, 

or should passive perception suffice?" Some constructivist researchers believe that the idea of constructivism 

implies a positive answer to the question, maintaining that learning progress depends on the degree of learner's 

activities with regard to material to be learned [26]. However, this perspective appears as conforming to simplified 

constructivism and open to discussion. Without denying the role of learner's activity with material in question, 

attention should be drawn to cases of knowledge transmission accomplished without any noticeable activity. It is 

conceivable that activities are required for several reasons: insufficient passive perception for understanding, and 

learning time limits. 

Forgetting constitutes a fundamental property of human memory. The most mysterious fact relating to the 

phenomenon of forgetting is the absence of any evidence of forgetting as biologically essential and providing 

human evolutionary advantages, like e.g. memory resources to accommodate new knowledge. On the other hand, 

there is some evidence of the human memorizing total (or almost total) information obtained before. A lost 

portion, due to forgetting, can be reconstructed either in part or whole. Bartlet [2] demonstrates that 

reconstruction is a fundamental and comprehensive property of human memory, determined by the strength of 

multiple links associated with the concept to be reconstructed. This fact underlies the learning principle of more 

links of learning material with past knowledge implying more chances of the material to be learned, memorized 

and, subsequently, reconstructed. Obviously, multiple links would not be so important if human memory had no 

forgetting property. 

3.2 Learning substance 

Learning substance is discussed in the literature on teaching and learning in terms of: declarative and procedural 

components relationships in teaching; and socially distributed nature of knowledge and group (school) learning. 

Activity-orientedness learning does not mean preference to procedures rather than concepts in learning. 

According to Piaget's Theory of Intelligence [5], concepts or declarative knowledge result from generalization in 

activities, with their learning considerably enhancing learner's procedural knowledge. A chess experts, for instance, 

demonstrates a high level of procedural knowledge, representing in serial moves, only relying on experience 

stored as declarative knowledge. The essence of all academic subjects in all disciplines lies in description rather 

than sensomotoric personal experience. Thus academic knowledge is primarily knowledge of descriptions. At least 

in academic education, activity-orientedness learning should be primarily interpreted as activity oriented on 

description rather than physical actions with learning subject. 

Human knowledge and, consequently, potential teaching subject, is socially distributed in the sense of their 

common semantic interpretation for all. Putnam [17], investigating the phenomenon of social distribution of 

knowledge, emphasizes the role of common communication language exemplified in words like "water" or "gold" 

that have, or should have, a common meaning for most people. 

37


School education maintains a widespread conception of knowledge to be tested in formal examination, believing 

in methods preparing a pupil for successful examination tests as all-purpose teaching mechanisms. Investigations 

in school education reveal some distinctive features [20]. The principal conclusion is that school education exists 

out of context, thus being context-free, generalized and abstracted. School teaching develops specific skills for 

school culture (for example, remembering material during testing). 

3.3 Learner and learning material relationships 

The learner and learning material relationships are discussed in terms of the two problems: learning motivation 

and routine problem selection by the learner. 

Many psychological theories and cognitive models applied in the theory of teaching and learning (behaviourist, 

SOAR, etc.) ignore motivation, thus implying that motivation has little or no effect on learning. This means that 

teaching is uniform, inevitable, and irrespective of the learner's desire. Nevertheless, while exerting little effect in 

early childhood, motivation provides a major learning factor for adults. A grownup individual will be little 

interested in irrelevant material, while demonstrating superior efficiency with material conforming to his/her 

interests. Motivation can be interpreted as learner's readiness for mental effort. Thus motivation will offset the 

expected nuisance of required mental effort in learning new material. 

In the case of dominant mental experience, constructivist philosophy suggests an independent learner navigating 

in the learning environment and therefore solving a routine selection problem. The importance of this selection 

problem for the teaching and learning problem at large, and the constructivist approach in particular, is attested 

by the fact that, in some cases, it is described as a special teaching principle [8]. If routine selection is deliberate 

rather than arbitrary, it means that learner's mental experience involves a learning method via navigation. 

3.4 Teaching and activities 

Teaching and activities, as a special teaching and learning theory unit, describes the following major issues: the 

role of feedback in the teaching and learning process, and teaching and learning for desired degree of activities. 

While successful learning of new material does not necessarily depends on feedback (for example, problem 

demonstration does not involve efficiency analysis), feedback often appears as a key point in the learning process. 

Feedback control from the problem to the learner transforms mere problem solving to problem-oriented teaching. 

Both constructivist philosophy and activity-orientedness learning involve feedback. The role of feedback in the 

learning process can be ranged as follows: 

a) Total lack of feedback, excluding learning (case of trying to hit an unseen target to with a stone); 

b) Internal feedback enabling the learner's independent judgment of (in) efficiency (case of hitting a visible 

target with a stone); 

c) Simple evaluation feedback from others present (case of response to a funny story); 

d) Diagnostics, or descriptive feedback, describing both effective or ineffective learning, and required 

modification and, possibly, reasons. 

Accumulating more knowledge, the learner is less dependent on external feedback, referring more functions to 

internal feedback and acting more freely. However, as internal feedback sufficiency cannot be guaranteed, 

constructivist strategy necessarily involves diagnostic feedback as an essential learning component. Most members 

of academic communities believe in book learning, with subjects like distant stars or past civilizations in astronomy 

or history respectively, defying any action. On the other hand, multiple evidence exists for the opinion that 

learning is impossible without acting on the subject. The phrase "I act and I understand" occurring in the literature 

38


on teaching and learning [11] reflects an extreme view of the role of activities in learning. A rational view of 

desired degree of activity in the learning process can be formulated as follows. While activity-orientedness 

approach to the subject of study is important in any case, the influence degree and final learning achievement 

depend on the following: 

a) Non-active learning is only effective with the student possessing a well-adapted model for new information. 

The newer the material to be learned, the more important the feedback and activity-orientedness 

approach. 

b) The need to obtain information via external feedback (necessitating activity-orientedness approaches) is 

often important with internal feedback undeveloped or a part of the solution completely lost (forgotten) 

and the student unable to proceed without external assistance. 

c) Acting on the subject of study/learning can be regarded as a testing component in the learning process. 

4. Results and discussion 

There are many pedagogical and psychological approaches and methods, which are not applied to any of 

components of the architecture of ITS, especially the tutor model. The most important of them are: 

(a) The concept of “teaching episode” and transmission of knowledge from the tutor to the student is a 

necessary result of the philosophy of structuralism. Constructivist approach states the concept of “teaching 

episode” and transmissions of knowledge to be only a co-reason of learning and that it works only in case 

when external environment is the determining factor. The second cause is learner’s activity, governed by 

previous learner’s mental experience. 

(b) Teaching could not be based on divided process of receiving of declarative knowledge and procedural 

knowledge. Declarative knowledge represents generalizing of procedural ones, and receiving of the first 

should be based on active experience or procedural knowledge. Thus, effective teaching presumes alternate 

acquiring of procedural and declarative knowledge. 

(c) Motivation is an important psychological factor of learning and its influence grows with years. Motivation 

can be interpreted as learner’s readiness for mental effort. Thus, motivation allows offsetting expected 

nuisance of required mental effort in learning new material. 

(d) The problem of next step or navigation is innate to learning process. The approach based on that concept of 

transmission of knowledge presumes that navigation depends on tutor, whereas constructivist approach 

considers mental experience of learner has an internal navigation method. 

(e) More knowledge collected - less need for external feedback and more functions of internal feedback so 

learning behavior become more independent. 

5. Conclusion 

In this paper, we tried to review the teaching and learning theories, attempting to describe their relationships, for 

improving the tutor model of ITS. The tutor model of ITS is composed of a set of teaching strategies that 

determines, which teaching action to be deployed according to the current cognitive state of the student. Teaching 

strategies implemented in ITS are not based on the old and recent developments in pedagogical science and pay no 

attention to both general principles of teaching and learning theory and many classical teaching methods suggested 

by practicing teachers. However, teaching and learning theories must be utilized in teaching strategies designed in 

the tutor model of ITS. 

39


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40


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41


EVALUATION OF GROUNDWATER QUALITY USING 

CONTAMINATION INDEX IN PARTS OF ALIMOSHO, LAGOS - NIGERIA. 

Akoteyon, I.S 

Email:sewanuakot@gmail.com 

Department of Geography and Planning, 

Faculty of Social Sciences, Lagos State University, Ojo-Lagos, P.M.B1087, Apapa, Lagos-Nigeria 

Abstract 

15 groundwater water samples were collected around 3 landfill sites in Igando,Lagos-Nigeria. Sample were 

analyzed for 7 heavy metals including Iron, Copper, Cadmium, Manganese, Lead, Zinc and Chromium using 

standard method.The results show that the concentration of heavy metals ranged between nd- 

ted contaminated index ranged 

between 15.4-432.06.The highest contamination value was recorded at location G5 followed by G2 while location 

G9 recorded the lowest contamination value in the study area.It was concluded that contamination level is 

high.Cadmium accounted for about 23.3% for the contamination of groundwater quality deterioration while Lead 

and Copper accounts for 19.3 and 8.8% respectively.The study recommended treatment, proper maintenance and 

compliance to the specification of lanfill according to the world standard. 

Key words: Contamination index; Groundwater; Heavy metal; Igando; Water quality; WHO standard 


Groundwater is the major source of drinking and other domestic water uses in Igando. It is the most reliable source 

of drinking water supply in the community. Groundwater has long been utilized as a readily accessible and stable 

source of water supply for domestic, industrial and agricultural use throughout the world [8]. Rapid urbanization, 

improper waste disposal and landfill, excessive application of fertilizers and unsanitary conditions has threatened 

groundwater quality and consequently human health in many parts of the world by naturally occurring pollutants 

and anthropogenic pollutants [8]. 

Contamination of groundwater with heavy metals (i.e., zinc, copper, chromium, nickel, cadmium, lead and mercury) 

could come from several sources, including industrial discharges from chemical and metallurgic factories or leakage 

from landfills [8]. In most developing countries, landfills are the primary means of Municipal Solid Waste 

(MSW) disposal because they offer dumping high quantities of MSW at low economical costs in comparison to 

other disposal methods such as incineration. However, landfill leachates produced from MSW landfill sites are 

generally heavily contaminated and consist of complex leachates that are difficult to deal with [19]. 

Leachates are characterized by high concentration of organic matter (biodegradable and non-biodegradable), 

ammonia nitrogen, heavy metals and chlorinated organic and inorganic salts [18]. Leachate can contaminate 

groundwater where landfills are not provided with liners. According to [18] [9], the characteristics of leachates 

depend on the waste composition, amount of precipitation, site hydrology and waste compaction, cover design and 

interaction of leachate with the environment and landfill design and operation. 

Therefore, considering the increase in demand for fresh water due to rapid population growth and accelerated pace of 

industrialization, it becomes imperative to regularly monitor the operations of landfill vis-a-vis the quality of 

groundwater and to device ways and means of protecting it [16].The study evaluates groundwater quality of Igando- 

Lagos, Nigeria using contamination index as a tool for assessing environmental condition of the study area 

2.The study area 

The study area is situated within Alimosho LGA of Lagos - Nigeria. It is located approximately between latitude 

6 o 31 0’ N to °31 30’N and longitude 3°15 0’E to 3°15 30’E. It occupies an area of about 5.1sq. m Fig.1).River 

Owo demarcates the area from Ado-Odo/Ota LG of Ogun state .Towards its east are Ifako- Ijaiye, Agege and Ikeja 

LGAs of Lagos state. Oshodi/Isolo, Amuwo-Odofin and Ojo LGAs of the state bound it in the southern part. The 

climate is characterized by two distinct seasons, a dry season between November and March and wet season 

between April and October. Annual precipitation is about 2000mm and serves as the major source of groundwater 

recharge [11]. 

42


Temperatures ranged between 28-33°C.The soil is composed of red and sandy-clay (laterite).The vegetation is 

composed of swamp forest and coastal plants. The geology is underlain by inter-bedded sands, gravelly sands, silts and 

clay. The hydrology is dominated by River Owo and its tributaries (River Abesan, River Oponu and River Illo).They 

drain into the Ologe lagoon. The population is about 1,277,714 people with a density of about 6,899 people per km 2 

[14] [13].The sources of water supply in the area include pipe borne water through the Lagos Water Corporation 

(LWC), boreholes and hand dug wells by private individual. Due to erratic power supply and the unwillingness of 

the people to pay and because the people believed water supply should be free of charge. Hence majority of the 

inhabitants has resorted to digging boreholes/hand dug wells as sources of water supply for drinking and other 

domestic uses. 

Major land uses in the area includes, residential, industrial, commercial, agricultural and landfill. As a result of 

increasing rise in population and high rate of waste generation in the state, the Lagos Waste Management Authority 

(LAWMA) constructed 3 landfills between 1996 and 2009.Out of these landfills; only two are operational in the 

study area while the remaining one has been abandoned.The landfills were designed with the capacity of about 

469,202.50 tonnes of waste from the entire state with lifespan of about 5-6 years [10]. However, despite the 

expiration of their lifespan; some of the landfills are still been operated. 

The operation of the landfills in Igando has greatly impacted on the groundwater quality of the study area. It is 

pertinent to note that before now; most of the wells that were constructed in the area were useful for various 

purposes including drinking. However, since the establishment of the landfills in the area, most of the wells are no 

longer usable due to leachates contamination. This situation poses great threat to majority of the people who depend 

on groundwater for their daily water supply needs. 

3.MATERIALS AND METHODS 

Several methods for water quality evaluation such as fuzzy mathematics, membership degree, factor analysis, gray 

modeling and analytic hierarchy process. However, these methods can not clearly express the water pollutant categories 

and one will not be able to explain whether the parameters involved in the evaluation meet the requirements of functional 

areas. The development and application of index method for water quality assessment exist in literature [20]. 

Water Quality Index method (WQI) provide the mechanism for presenting a cumulatively derived numerical 

expression defining a certain level of water quality. One of the major advantages of WQI is that, it incorporates data 

from multiple water quality parameters into a mathematical equation that rates the health of water quality with 

number [23]. It is widely used in the world due to its capability of full expression of the water quality information 

and is one of the most effective tools and important parameters for the evaluation and management of groundwater 

quality for the concerned citizens and policy makers all over the world. Studies abound in literature on groundwater 

contamination. Such work include, [3] [6] [4][2]. They all concluded that there is need to monitor water quality on 

regular basis. This is because the increase in concentration of trace metals in potable water will increase the threat to 

man’s health and life. 

The quality of groundwater can be assessed with the use or calculation of environmental factors and indices, which 

include a wide range of parameters. Such factors may become valuable tool for the assessment of environmental 

condition of an area. According to [3], contamination index (Cd) may be considered as such if the measured 

concentration of parameters and the upper permissible levels of a contaminant is taken into account. According to 

[3], contamination index is defined as Eq. 1 and 2: 

n 

Cd � � Cfi 

(1) 

Cfi 

i�I CA 

CN 

i1 � � (2) 

where, Cd= contamination index; Cfi=contamination factor of the i-th component, CAi = analytical value of the i-th 

component and CNi=upper permissible concentration of the i-th component according to [22].Contamination index 

(Cd) is calculated individually for each water sample, as a sum of the contaminant factors of single component that 

exceed the maximum contaminant levels [17]. Hence, contamination index summarized the combinational effects of 

several quality parameters, that may have harmful consequences to human health/the environment. The value scale 

for contamination index consists of 3 ranges; Cd< 1 (low contamination), 1 < Cd < 3 (medium contamination) and 

Cd > 3 (high contamination) [6]. 

In this study, fifteen (15) groundwater samples were collected around 3 landfills from the study area during dry 

season using random sampling technique. Dry season was chosen because dilution rate will be low and depth to 

groundwater table will have declined [21]. Samples were analyzed for heavy metals including (Iron, Lead, 

43


Manganese, Copper, Chromium, Cadmium and Zinc). The parameters were selected because municipal landfill 

leachates are highly concentrated and contain heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel, zinc 

among others [5] [15]. The standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater quality was adopted for 

the laboratory analysis [1]. 

Samples were collected in a 1.5 L polyethylene bottles after rinsing with the water being sampled and were properly 

sealed and labeled. The samples were stored in cooler containing ice cubes and transferred to Chemistry 

Department, University of Lagos, Akoka for laboratory analysis within 24hours from the time of sample collection 

to avoid errors that may be introduce due to environmental factors. Global Positioning System (GPS) was used to 

take the co-ordinates readings of the sampling locations and were plotted using ArcMap 9.3 software. 

The heavy metals constituents in groundwater (Zinc, Lead, Cadmium, Iron, Manganese, Copper and Chromium) 

were analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS) method and the concentration of each parameter 

was read directly at their specific wavelength. 

4.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 

The level of the detected heavy metal constituents in groundwater samples (Table 1) shows that in all the sampling 

locations, Iron exceeded the WHO standard limit in 7 locations (i.e., G5-6,8 and 10-12).Copper was found to be above the 

maximum permissible limit of WHO standard in only 5 locations (i.e., G5,8, 10-11 and 15). 

Cadmium exceeded the WHO standard limit in all the sampling locations while Manganese was found to be above 

the maximum permissible limit of WHO standard in 8 sampling locations (i.e.G2-5, 8, 10 and 14-15). Lead and Zinc were 

found to be above the WHO standard limit in all the sampling locations except at G2, 5, 8, 10 and G1, 3, 4 and 14 

respectively. It was discovered that Chromium was found to be within the WHO standard limit in all the sampling 

locations. 

Table 2 presents the statistics of heavy metal constituents in groundwater of the study area. The result shows that the 

mean concentration of the examined parameters (Iron, Copper, Cadmium, Manganese, Lead, Zinc and Chromium) 

ranged between 0.00-10.16, 0.02-8.71, 0.02-0.32, 0.04-30.00, 0.00-3.14, 1.40-55.18 and 0.00-0.04 mg L �1 ) 

respectively. Among the examined heavy metal constituents, Zinc has the highest mean (18.12 mg L �1 ) followed by 

Manganese (2.89 mg L �1 ) while Chromium remained the least (0.02 mg L �1 ). Also, Zinc recorded the highest 

standard deviation (17.30 mg L �1 ). 

This was followed by Manganese (7.68 mg L �1 ) while Chromium recorded the least value of (0.01mg L �1 ).The 

computed contamination index(Table 3) for the sampling locations shows that location G5 has the highest 

contamination index as a result of the presence of Fe, Cu, Cd, Mn, Pb and Zn being the contamination parameters. 

This was followed by location G2 with the presence of Cd, Mn, Pb and Zn as the contamination parameters while 

location G9 recorded the lowest value of contamination index with the presence of Cd and Zn as the contamination 

parameters (Fig. 2). 

Further, the World Health Organization (WHO) standard limit for drinking water quality adopted to adjudge the 

suitability of groundwater for human drinking in the study area showed that all the parameters examined with the 

exception of Chromium were found to be above the maximum permissible limit for drinking water standard. 

High iron level noticed in water samples is characteristic of groundwater in Lagos environs which is due to the local 

geology [15].Studies have also shown that excessive dissolved iron and manganese concentrations in groundwater 

result in taste and precipitation problems.Heavy doses of chromium salts even though are rapidly eliminated from 

human body, could corrode the intestinal tract (WHO, 2004). Similarly,heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, 

chromium and copper have also been reported at excessive levels in groundwater in parts of the state due to landfill 

operations [15]. 

Concentration of heavy metals in landfill is generally higher at earlier stages because of higher metal solubility due 

to low pH caused by production of organic acids [9]. Asa result of decrease in pH at later stages, a decrease in metal 

solubility occurs resulting in rapid decrease in concentration of heavy metals except lead because lead is known to 

produce very heavy complex compound with humic acids [9]. 

Lead is a naturally occurring heavy metal. The presence of Pb in water and food can result in health effects 

including neurological damage, reduced IQ, anemia, and nerve disorders, among others [7].Chromium is a naturally 

occurring heavy metal that is commonly used in industrial processes.The presence of Chromium in water and food 

can result to gastrointestinal, respiratory, and immune systems, as well as reproductive and developmental problems 

[7]. 

44


5.CONCLUSION 

The present study evaluated 15 groundwater samples using random sampling technique from 15 locations around 

landfills in Igando-Lagos, Nigeria during dry season. Samples were analyzed for heavy metals including (Iron, Lead, 

Manganese, Copper, Chromium, Cadmium and Zinc) according to standard method. The sampling locations were 

plotted using ArcMap 9.3 software. The quality of groundwater samples of the study area was assessed based on 

contamination index (i.e., factors of single component that exceed the maximum permissible concentration of water 

quality parameter according to WHO standard).The adopted WHO standard showed that only Chromium was found 

to be within the maximum permissible limit of drinking water quality in the study area. The computed contaminated 

index ranged between 15.4-432.06.The highest contamination index value was recorded at location G5while location G9 

recorded the lowest contamination value in the study area. 

Further analysis revealed that Cadmium accounted for about 23.3% of the contamination of groundwater quality in 

the study area while Lead and Copper accounted for 19.3 and 8.8% respectively.The study recommended thorough 

treatment, proper landfill design and operation, the use of liners, adequate maintenance and strict adherence to world 

standard of landfill operation. It was also recommended that, industrial effluent should be treated before it is been 

discharged unto the land surface. This will safeguard the health of the people especially those that depend on 

groundwater source for drinking purpose. 

REFERENCES 

[1] American Public Health Association. Standard Methods for Examination of Water and Wastewater (20 th ed.; 

New York, USA). (1998). 

[2] Bably, P. and Kumari,S. Heavy metal pollution index of groundwater of an abandoned open cast mine with Fly 

Ash: A case study. Mine Water Environ, (27), 265-267. (2008) 

[3] Backman, B., Bodis, D., Lahermo, P., Rapant, S., and Tarvainen, T. Application of a groundwater contamination 

index in Finland and Slovakia. Environ Geology, (36), 55-64. (1998) 

[4] Bokar, H., Tang, J and Lin, N.. Groundwater quality and contamination index mapping in Changchun City, 

China.Chinese Geog. Sci., 14(1), 63-70. (2004) 

[5] Christensen, J.B., Jensen, D.L. Gron, C. and Filip, Z. Characterization of the dissolved organic carbon in 

landfill leachate-polluted groundwater Christensen TH, Water Res., (32), 125-135. (1998). 

[6] Edet, A.E. and Offiong, O.E. Evaluation of water quality indices for heavy metal contamination monitoring. A 

study case from Akpabuyo-Odukpani area, Lower cross River Basin (southeastern Nigeria).GeoJournal., (57), 295- 

304. (2002). 

[7] Blacksmith Institute. Pollution:The Global Impact of Toxic Pollution. Annual Report, New York, 1-25. (2010). 

[8] Keishiro, H. Groundwater Contamination and Quality Management Policy in Asia. Int. Rev. Envorin. Str., (6), 

291-306. (2006). 

[9] Kulikowska, D. and E. Klimiuk. The effect of landfill age on municipal leachate composition. Bioresource 

Tech., 99,(13), 5981-5985. (2008). 

[10] Longe, E.O. and Balogun, M.R. Groundwater Quality Assessment near a Municipal Landfill, Lagos, Nigeria 

.Res. J. App. Sci. Eng. Tech., 2(1), 39-44. (2010). 

[11] Longe, E.O., Groundwater Resources Potential in the Coastal Plain Sands Aquifers,Lagos-Nigeria. Res J. 

Environ Earth Sci., 3(1),1-7. 2011. 

[12] Muhammad, U., Hamidi, A.A. and Mohd, S.Y. Variability of parameters involved in leachates pollution index 

and determination of LPI from four landfills in Malaysia.Int. J. Chem. Eng., pp.1-6.DOI: 10.1155/2010/747953. 

(2010). 

[13] National Population Census, Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette Legal Notice on Publication of the 

details of breakdown of the National and State Census Provisional Totals. , (2006). 

[14] Odumosu, T., In: Lagos State in Maps. Balogun,Y and Ojo,K (Eds.), Rex Charles Publication, Ibadan, pp: 1-5. 

.(1999) 

[15] Ogundiran, O.O and Afolabi, T.A., Assessment of the physicochemical parameters and heavy metal toxicity of 

leachates from municipal solid waste open dumpsite. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Tech., 5(2), 243-250. (2008). 

[16] Pei-Yue, L., Hui , Q and Jian-Hua, W., Groundwater Quality Assessment Based on Improved Water Quality 

Index in Pengyang County, Ningxia, Northwest China. E-Journal of Chem., 7(SI) 209-216. (2010). 

[17] Ramos, J.A.L., Barrón, L.E.R. and Sandoval, I.M. Combined use of aquifer contamination risk maps and 

contamination indexes in the design of water quality monitoring networks in Mexico. Geofísica Int., 43(4), 641 650. 

(2004). 

45


[18] Reinhart, D.R and Grosh, C.J. Analysis of Florida MSW landfill leachate quality, Florida Center for Solid and 

Hazardous Waste Management, Gainesville, Fla, USA. Tech. Report., 97-3. (1998). 

[19] Renou, S., Givaudan, J.G., Poulain, S., Dirassouyan, F and Moulin, P. (2008). Landfill leachate treatment: 

review and opportunity .Journal of Hazardous Mater., 150(3), 468-493. 

[20] Tiwari, T.N. and Mishra, M.A. A preliminary assignment of water quality index of major Indian Rivers. Indian 

J. Environ. Proc., (5),276-279. .(1985) 

[21] Todd, D.K. and. Mays, L.W. Groundwater Hydrology, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 652. (2005). 

[22] World Health Organization, Rapid Assessment of Drinking Water Quality.Country Report Nigeria,p.82. (2006). 

[23] Yogedra, K and Puttaiah, E.T. Determination of Water Quality Index and Suitability of an Urban Waterbody in 

Shimga town, Karnatka.Sengupta,M and Dalwani,R (Eds.).Proceedings of Taal2007:The World Lake 

Conference.342-346. (2008). 

Table 1: Level of detected heavy metal constituents in groundwater samples 

Sampling 

location Fe Cu Cd Mn Pb Zn Cr 

G1 0.05 0.20 0.130 0.10 ND 1.40 ND 

G2 0.11 0.40 0.190 2.40 1.7 8.60 0.02 

G3 ND 0.10 0.190 0.80 ND 4.20 0.04 

G4 0.15 0.50 0.150 0.30 ND 2.40 0.01 

G5 2.39 7.34 0.220 5.89 3.14 18.20 ND 

G6 0.68 0.27 0.050 0.08 0.07 12.70 0.03 

G7 0.15 0.06 0.130 0.04 0.02 5.74 0.01 

G8 10.16 8.71 0.080 0.26 0.15 55.18 0.02 

G9 0.06 0.02 0.040 0.04 0.01 8.64 ND 

G10 8.07 6.92 0.120 0.22 0.11 49.65 0.03 

G11 2.76 2.36 0.020 0.09 0.08 29.82 0.01 

G12 0.89 0.54 0.020 0.07 0.04 25.61 0.03 

G13 0.12 0.08 0.130 0.09 0.03 10.42 0.02 

G14 0.08 0.04 0.320 3.00 0.02 4.10 ND 

G15 1.52 3.64 0.210 30.00 0.10 35.19 0.01 

WHO Std. 0.3 2.00 0.003 0.20 0.01 5.00 0.05 

All parameters are measured in mg/L; ND-Not detected, WHO-World Health Organization 

Table 2: Statistics of Heavy metal constituents in groundwater samples 

Parameters Range Mean ±SD 

Iron(mg/L) 0.0-10.16 1.81±3.12 

Copper 0.02-8.71 2.08±3.08 

Cadmium (mg/L) 0.02-0.32 0.13±0.08 

Manganese (mg/L) 0.04-30.0 2.89±7.68 

Lead (mg/L) 0.0-3.14 0.36±0.88 

Zinc (mg/L) 1.40-55.18 18.12±17.30 

Chromium (mg/L) 0.0-0.04 0.02±0.01 

SD: Standard Deviation 

46


Contamination index value 

500 

450 

400 

350 

300 

250 

200 

150 

100 

50 

0 

43.33 

247.05 

67.33 

Fig.1: Sampling locations 

51.4 

432.06 

28.48 

Fig. 2:Computed contamination index for the sampling locations 

46.48 

96.83 

G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 G8 G9 G10 G11 G12 G13 G14 G15 

Sampling Points 

47 

15.06 

92.09 

31.01 

18.76 

48.81 

123.67 

236.89


Abstract: 

Mobile Knowledge Portals: A new way of Accessing 

Corporate Knowledge 

Hanadi “M.R” Al-Zegaier, Business Administration Department, Applied Science University 

Amman, Jordan, zegaier@asu.edu.jo 

Samer M. Barakat, Management Information Systems Department, Applied Science University, 

Amman, Jordan, sbarakat@asu.edu.jo 

Knowledge portals are constructed through the use of web and internet technology and are accessed to add, retrieve 

or update knowledge and are done through a web browser using a computer system. Corporate knowledge portals 

are used by organizations for sharing, storing and retrieving knowledge by all its customers, employees, vendors and 

partners. Corporate knowledge portals allow organizations to become more competitive and innovative. This paper 

discusses the use of mobile portals as a new form of accessing corporate knowledge through the use of the mobile 

devices and identifies the main issues when mobile portal is meeting knowledge management, the paper focus on 

mobile knowledge portals which are considered to be the main ICT to support mobile knowledge management. 

Keywords: Mobile applications, corporate knowledge portals, knowledge management, Mobile Portals, Knowledge 

sharing. 


Many researchers, economists, politicians and businessmen are referring to today’s economy as “ nowledge 

economy” reflecting a shift in trends for organi ations from relying on information to ma e decisions to relying on 

knowledge as vital component for organizational survival and success. Knowledge economy as a term also implies 

that today’s organi ations has a continuing quest for nowledge that is needed in their daily operations. Although it 

is information that is at the center stage of everyday activities at organizations, knowledge remains the ultimate goal 

for employees, top management and decision makers. This accumulation of information over time becomes explicit 

and implicit knowledge stored in the learning organization. Knowledge accumulation and use needs a knowledge 

management system to support the “creation, capture, storage and dissemination of information” 1 . The Internet 

has played a major role in building a huge database of accumulated information that is ever growing in size and 

content. In November 004 oogle has announced on its company’s website that it has indexed billion web pages 

[3]. 

The Internet technology prompted organization to use a modified version of the Internet; this led to the introduction 

of the Intranet in the organizational settings. The Intranet allowed the fast and convenient sharing of company 

information among employees [7] from the office or home. For many corporations an intranet is seen to be the way 

in which employees would have access to company’s information and expertise and to work collaboratively [2]. 

Organizations over time learned how to balance the access of information for both internal and external use [2]. 

Today, organizations deploy Intranets and extranets to allow its employee easy access of company’s information 

through its firewalled Intranet and at the same time allows suppliers, vendors and stakeholders secured access to its 

production data through its Extranet networks. 

The overwhelming amount of information available at a company’s web site requires continuous amendments and 

updates and this led eventually to the development of Content Management Systems (CMS). CMS are web 

applications designed to make it easy for non-technical users to add, edit and manage a website (The Plone 

Foundation). There are many CMS providers out there, some of them provide the system for free and some charges 

a modest fee to download and use their software. Wordpress.org is considered one of the notorious free CMS 

software that is used globally by millions of users [10]. 

48


According to Rene er Organi ations are building and identifying strategies to enhance the “intellectual capital of the 

organi ation’s wor force”. This implies paying attention to the use of nowledge management systems and portals 

within the organization and disseminating knowledge about the strategic benefits of knowledge management 

systems for “decision ma ing” and strategy formulation. 

Currently the U government is focusing its efforts to bring the “librarian’s professional nowledge and expertise to 

stand on integrating electronic library and information services with rising nowledge management KM) practices”. 

Many organizations are following this norm form large to small all over the world. This requires a complete and 

comprehensive change management approach to allow and guarantee that all individuals within organizations shall 

grasp this new technological and managerial change. 

2.Knowledge Portals Evolution 

Portals evolved over the years to what we know today as Corporate Knowledge Portals (CPK). In the early days of 

the Web, portals were merely a collection of disassociated websites Altman 007 . They were used to “consolidate 

corporate intranets and to provide single sign-on to back-end applications and database systems” . uch systems 

are still in place today by some small and medium size organizations and are used by their employees on a daily 

basis. An example of such early day portals are the web enabled Grad Reporting Systems at universities and the HR 

Employee Attendance Systems utili ed in most organi ations. uch systems have a user log to record all users’ 

activities on the system for administrative review and to monitor employee’s actions and evaluate their performance 

on a daily, monthly and yearly basis. 

Online portals later evolved into online systems that included access to almost all organizations internal applications 

such as accounting, marketing, inventory, human resources, and finance. Thereby users can access their company 

systems and perform all the required transactions both form office and home. They would also find information 

about other business departments through the centralized database over which the system is running on. 

Today’s portals provide employees a “single sign-on and access to back-end applications, business information, and 

also other portals in the organi ation” . 

Systems and business developers relying on new business flow methodologies started building portals that are 

connected to back-end systems and thereby providing employees with the advantage of using portals that are 

“business process-driven, rather than data-driven as in older portal designs” . 

3.Corporate knowledge Portals 

The Corporate Information Portals evolved over time into what we know today as Corporate Knowledge Portals 

(CKP) that are influenced by the goals of Knowledge Management [Grammer 2000]. They inherited EIPs 

functionalities and they also integrated access to expertise and embedded applications functionalities [Grammer 

2000]. 

In reality one may not be able to distinguish from start if the application he is using is an CKP or EIP. Both portals 

provide information about the organi ation and its products, services and operations. It also provides “collective 

services such as security, metadata repository, personali ation, search, publish/subscribe,” they also mimic the 

general layout and look of a portal user interface [Firestone 2002]. 

Knowledge portals contribute to the success of the corporate knowledge management systems. They provide users 

with a unified platform for the access and retrieval of vital information residing on the company’s website and web 

enabled applications. They are considered a knowledge management networking system for organizations. 

In theory CKPs are a perfect solution to knowledge management systems in organization, but the real world 

implementation show that these systems lack a major contributor to the continued success of knowledge 

management systems and that is real time online collaboration. “It is not surprising that there is now a perceived 

need for better collaboration between knowledge workers across organi ations” Marshall 00 . 

4.Mobile knowledge portals (MKP) 

MKPs are defined as Knowledge portals that the user can interact with on the multi-access basis, in Particular 

through a web interface or via handheld devices like PDAs, smart or cellular phones. 

The most important class of MKPs are those that not just provide mobile access to the functionalities of the 

underlying KPs but also use some specific characteristics of mobile technology like for example permanent 

49


connectivity, Anytime accessibility, exploit location-related context of the users to provide them, With some 

additional value like delivering location-related information or providing Anytime connectivity to domain experts 

[5]. 

According to them they identify the following major specific characteristics of mobile technology and its services 

that distinguish them from the ones of Internet: 

� independence of location and time 

� anytime accessibility, 

� personalization, 

� context awareness, 

� Permanent connectivity. 

In (Search community-of-knowelege.de) the following aspects of knowledge mobility are introduced: 

� Mobility of knowledge users (MKP provides mobile access to its knowledge recourses), 

� Mobility of knowledge carriers or domain experts (MKP supports access to the experts’ knowledge), 

� Personalization and context awareness of knowledge (MKP delivers location- and context-related 

knowledge in accordance with users’ preferences). 

5.Research objectives: 

1. To understand customer’s perception of Mobile Portals ease of use. 

2. To understand Customer’s think about the existence of helpfulness for mobile knowledge portals. 

3. To understand Customer’s perception for control and efficiency of mobile knowledge portals used by their 

bank. 

6.Problem definitions: 

The study was conducted to address certain key issues related to the mobile portals as extension to corporate 

knowledge portals. It would be worth to have some answers for the following questions: 

1. What is the degree of customer’s perception about the ease of use of Mobile Portals? 

2. Do Customer’s think about the existence of helpfulness for mobile knowledge portals? 

3. What are Customer’s perception about the control and efficiency of mobile knowledge portals used by 

their bank? 

7.Suggested Model: 

Based on Firestone [2] and [5] research model is developed. A model consist of four variables: information portal, 

knowledge portal, web portal and mobile portal, as shown in figure (1) 

8.Data Collection 

The data and information were gathered from two main resources: 

1. Primary Resources: 

This comprises General data and the questionnaire 

2. Secondary Resources: 

Using the scientific references Boo s, articles, etc…) concerned with the study’s subject. 

50


9.Research Instrument: 

The researchers opted to use the close-ended questionnaire by restricting the answer set according to likert scale. 

The source of the questionnaire items for each construct as shown in Table 1 bellow. 

10.Study Population 

To be able to examine the research problem and the questions raised in that respect and in order to fulfill the 

objectives of this study, the researchers have been chosen to conduct the research at one of the leading Jordanian 

banks (The Arab Bank) which constitutes the first private sector financial institution in the Arab World. 

Arab Bank has an unmatched Global Arab branch network with 500 branches spanning 30 countries in 5 continents. 

The survey questionnaire was distribute to (165) clients at the main branch of the Arab bank at three different period 

of the day early morning, noon and after noon; (158) questionnaires were returned from the targeted population, (6) 

questionnaire were excluded from the analysis leaving (152) questionnaires that were included in the analysis. 

11.Research Methodology 

Population and Sample 

This section describes the population through the general characteristics of the respondents in term of gender, age, 

educational level, mobile portals usage as shown in table (2) below. 

12.Results and Discussion 

To understand customer’s perception of Mobile Portals ease of use a combination of positive and negative 

statements were given for customers Figure 1). A large number of customers 7 . %) “Agreed” or “strongly 

agreed” that using mobile nowledge portal is sufficiently easy. 75. %) of customers “agreed” or “strongly agreed” 

that it is easy to move from one part of task to another using a mobile knowledge portal. 7.9% of customers 

“disagreed” or “strongly disagreed” with this viewpoint. Customers’ response to the fact that “all services can be 

carried out in a systematically similar way” was in majority against this with a 4.7%) “ trongly disagreed”. 

4. %) of customers “agreed” or “strongly agreed” to the fact that it is simple and uncomplicated to use mobile 

knowledge portals. A large majority of customers (71.4%) “Agreed” or “strongly agreed” that mobile nowledge 

portals enable quic , effective and economical performance of tas s and 75. %) of customers “agreed” or “strongly 

agreed” that it was easy to access information that they needed through mobile nowledge portals. 

Customers were asked about what they think about the existence of helpfulness of mobile knowledge portals. 88.1% 

of customers "strongly agree" that the help information given was useful in the mobile knowledge portals. 72.4% of 

customers confirmed that the explanation of mobile knowledge portals is clear and understandable. A large majority 

of customers 5.1% "strongly agree” that documentation for mobile nowledge portals are sufficiently informative. 

Feedback for customers was perceived as extremely helpful with a 73.5% "agree" and "strongly agree" with this 

stand. 

Customers were asked about how they perceive control and efficiency of mobile knowledge portals used by their 

bank. 82.2% of customers responded that the response and information display is fast enough. 73% reported that the 

amount of information displayed on the screen is adequate. Mobile knowledge portals allow users to access 

applications and data with sufficiently few eystro es scored 1. % and “data display is sufficiently consistent” 

cored 71%. The argument “Mobile nowledge portal support all functions in the way that you find it useful” 

scored about 71.4%. 

51


14.Conclusion 

Knowledge management process - especially the discovery and acquisition - today is increasing carried out in 

mobile environment, like at the customers houses, out side of there offices or even at the roads, where knowledge 

workers use mobile devices instead of PC'S to have access to high-band width networks. 

This paper shows that using mobile knowledge portals are becoming a very useful tool for both the corporate and the 

customers, also the customers agree through the distributed questionnaire that the mobile portal was very easy to 

access information with, and the help information given is useful, also mobile portal knowledge support all 

functions they needed. 

Because of that Mobile knowledge portals have to be enhanced with mobile knowledge services and consider 

location-oriented information to meet fully the requirements of mobile knowledge management in the near future. 

In future works it's highly recommended to address the adaptation of mobile services, the consideration of users and 

the work context for knowledge management and the design of highly context- aware knowledge portals. 

15.Limitation 

First and foremost this is a case study which is a descriptive method, not an explanatory one. So the conclusions 

about cause-and-effect relationships cannot be drawn. Behavior can only be described, not explained. Case studies 

also involve only a single individual or just a few and therefore may not be representative of the general group or 

population. So this leaves room for important details to be left out. Also, much of the information collected is 

retrospective data, recollections of past events, and is therefore subject to the problems inherent to memory. 

The second limitation has to do with the extent to which the findings can be generalized beyond the cases studied. 

The number of cases is too limited for broad generalizations, further empirical evaluations, however, are needed to 

replicate the findings in different contexts and surroundings. 

References 

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46 No.12, pp.48-52. 

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http://searchwindevelopment.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid8_gci212377,00.html 

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. 

52


[9] Wayne Ec erson. April 1 ). “Business Portals: rivers, efinitions, and Rules,” The ata Warehousing 

Institute, Gaithersburg, MD. 

[10] WordPress › Blog Tool and Publishing Platform, (http://wordpress.org/). 

www.community-of-knowelege.de 

11 Yu, C., Chang, H. 00 ), “Personali ed location-based recommendation services for tour planning in mobile 

tourism applications”, Lecture Notes in Computer cience Vol. 5 , Proceedings of the 10th International 

Conference on E-commerce and Web Technologies, Linz, Austria, September 1-4, pp. 1-49 . 

Enterprise 

Knowledge 

Portals 

Information 

Portal 

Knowledge 

Portal 

Web 

Portal 

Mobile 

Portal 

Figure (1) Mobile Portal Model 

53 

Ease of use 

Helpfulness 

Control and 

efficiency


Table: 1 Research Constructs 

Variables 

Ease of use 

Source of items 

Helpfulness 

Yu, Chang (2009), 

Control and efficiency Lee, Benbasat (2003) 

Petersen, Gransaether, Krogstie(2010) 

Table 2: Demographics 

Characteristics Frequency Percentage 

Gender: 

Male 86 56.6 

Female 66 43.4 

Age: 

Under 20 42 27.6 

20 – 30 76 50 

31 – 40 28 18.4 

Over 40 6 3.9 

Educational Level: 

High school - - 

College degree 15 9.9 

Bachelor 133 87.5 

Post graduate degree 4 2.6 

Mobile portals usage 

Less than 6 months 22 14.5 

1/2 to 1 year 41 27 

1 to 2 years 81 53.3 

Over 2 years 8 14.5 

54


Figure 2 Ease of Use 

Figure 3 helpfulness 

55


Figure 4 Control & Efficiency 

56


RELIGION AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA 

Okechukwu Odinaka Ajaegbu 

University of Ibadan, Abia State University 

ajaegbuodina@yahoo.com 

Abstract 

The level of development of a country is affected by many factors. Economists tend to emphasize the impact of 

economic variables however; political and social factors can also be very important determinant of national 

development. 

This paper therefore examined the influence of religion on the development of Nigeria. Theories such as ‘the 

philosophical theory of religion as a theory of terrorism’ and ‘protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism’ were used 

to clearly explain the influence of religion on national development. 

In sum, it was noted that the relationship between religion and development is likely to be complementary as long as 

religious beliefs and practices promote ‘moderation’ rather than ‘extremes’. 

Keywords: National Development, Religion, Economy, Conflict, Terrorism. 


Religion is a system of social coherence commonly understood as a group of beliefs or attitudes concerning an 

object, person, unseen or imaginary being, or system of thought considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine or 

highest truth, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions, and rituals associated with such belief or system of 

thought. It is a framework within which specific theological doctrines and practices are advocated and pursued; 

usually among a community of like-minded believers [10]. 

Religion’ religio) has two distinctive etymological roots [6]. Firstly, the Latin word relegere, from legere, means to 

bring together, to harvest or to gather. Secondly, religare, from ligare, means to tie or to bind together [3]. The first 

meaning recognizes the religious foundations of any social group that is gathered together. The second indicates the 

disciplines or morality that is necessary for controlling and regulating human beings. Kirkpatrick (2005) sees 

religion as psychological attachment, a powerful emotional relationship to things. Tylor (1958-1871), defined 

religion as a belief in spirits. Spirits were gods, animating powers, animal-spirit companions, etc, all of which 

seemed to have a religious cast. Durkheim (1963-1912) defined religion as a collective representation that made 

things sacred. Religion was a worldview that created the sacred. The power to do this resided with the society. 

Therefore, society created religion. Durkheim felt that religion was the foundation of society [9]. 

A definition of religion is difficult to make, because religion has many facets, many of which do not appear to be 

religious by themselves. For example, religion involves gathering in groups. It involves communal eating. It 

involves theoretical discourse about the nature of the universe, and so forth. Countless definitions have been 

proposed by theoreticians. The most interesting thing is that an average person can tell when others are engaging in 

religious behaviour while many scholars and scientists have problems defining it. The concept of religion is like the 

concept of culture. It is easy to use in ordinary discourse, but difficult to define precisely. 

On the other hand, Development could be defined as a process of economic and social transformation that is based 

on complex cultural and environmental interactions. According to Walter Rodney, development is the process that 

57


includes: Physical development which includes man-made goods produced by use of technology, Cultural 

development which comprises of the values, norms and traditions of a society, and Personal development which 

includes the psychological directions of individuals [1]. 

According to Seers (1979) the purpose of development in the society is to reduce poverty, inequality, and 

unemployment. For Sen (1999), development involves reducing deprivation or broadening choice. Deprivation 

represents a multidimensional view of poverty that includes hunger, illiteracy, illness and poor health, 

powerlessness, voicelessness, insecurity, humiliation, and a lack of access to basic infrastructure. 

From the foregoing therefore, National Development is the ability of a country or countries to improve the economic 

and social welfare of the people e.g. by providing security and social amenities which includes quality education, 

portable water, transportation infrastructure, medical care, employment etc. 

2.THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES 

2.1The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is a book written by Max Weber, a German economist and 

sociologist in 1904 and 1905 that began as a series of essays. It is argued that the book should not be viewed as a 

detailed study of Protestantism but rather as an introduction into Weber's later works, especially his studies of 

interaction between various religious ideas and economics. 

In the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber puts forward the thesis that Puritan ethics and ideas had 

influenced the development of capitalism. However, religious devotion was usually accompanied by rejection of 

worldly affairs, including the pursuit of wealth and possessions. Why was that not the case with Protestantism? 

Weber addresses this apparent paradox in the book. He defines spirit of capitalism as the ideas and habits that favour 

the rational pursuit of economic gain [8]. Weber points out that such a spirit is not limited to Western culture if one 

considers it as the attitude of individuals, but that such individuals — heroic entrepreneurs, as he calls them — could 

not by themselves establish a new economic order (capitalism). The most common tendencies were the greed for 

profit with minimum effort and the idea that work was a curse and burden to be avoided especially when it exceeded 

what was enough for modest life. As he wrote in his essays: 

In order that a manner of life well adapted to the peculiarities of the capitalism… could come to dominate others, it 

had to originate somewhere, and not in isolated individuals alone, but as a way of life common to the whole groups 

of man [8]. 

After defining the 'spirit of capitalism', Weber argues that there are many reasons to find its origins in the religious 

ideas of the Reformation. Many observers like William Petty, Montesquieu, Henry Thomas Buckle, John Keats, and 

others have commented on the affinity between Protestantism and the development of commercialism. 

Weber shows that certain types of Protestantism favoured rational pursuit of economic gain and that worldly 

activities had been given positive spiritual and moral meaning. It was not the goal of those religious ideas, but rather 

a by-product — the inherent logic of those doctrines and the advice based upon them both directly and indirectly 

encouraged planning and self-denial in the pursuit of economic gain. Weber traced the origins of the Protestant ethic 

to the Reformation. In his opinion, under the Roman Catholic Church, an individual could be assured of salvation by 

belief in the church's sacraments and the authority of its hierarchy. However, the Reformation had effectively 

removed such assurances. 

From a purely technical and theological viewpoint, the Reformation did not remove assurances of salvation. 

However, from a psychological viewpoint, the average person had difficulty adjusting to this new worldview, and 

58


only the most devout believers or "religious geniuses" within Protestantism, such as Martin Luther, were able to 

make this adjustment [8]. 

According to the new Protestant religion, an individual was religiously compelled to follow a secular vocation with 

as much zeal as possible. A person living according to this worldview was more likely to accumulate money. The 

individual engages in capitalistic economizing not only for the expediency of making a living, but in the expectation 

that such activity would test his inner resources and thus affirm his moral worth [8]. This is evident in Nigerian 

(protestant) churches. Teachings in the church are centred on money and individuals capability to create wealth. 

Poverty is a curse and therefore not for the children of God. God owns the earth and everything in it and if you are 

truly his child, you cannot be poor. So being wealthy is a demonstration that one has possessed his rightful 

inheritance from God as his child. Poverty is affliction from the devil and one has to break out of the grip of the 

devil and move into the realm of wealth which is the inheritance of the children of God. For one to successfully do 

this, spiritual (prayers) and physical (hard work) efforts are needed. 

In the long run, such teachings would have positively affected the economy of the country by making people to 

work hard in their various places of work not just to make a living but also to fulfil their religions calling of being 

successful on earth. Many churches have even gone beyond just mere teachings to show examples of how to create 

wealth by creating jobs through investing in different sectors of Nigerian economy such as education, transportation, 

agriculture, trade etc. 

From the above therefore, religion has positively affected Nigerian economy through its teachings. People are taught 

to believe in their capability to create wealth, jobs are created both directly and indirectly by religious institutions, 

taxes from their investments are paid to the government etc; and all these help to boast the economy of the country 

and improve the living standard of the people. 

2.2The Philosophical Theory of Religion as a Theory of Terrorism 

Many criminologists have pointed out that the disciplines of theology, religion, and philosophy have had important 

things to say about terrorism [18] [12]. It is also a fact that about a quarter of all terrorist groups and about half of 

the most dangerous ones on earth are primarily motivated by religious concerns (Hoffman 1993). They believe that 

God not only approves of their action, but that God demands their action. Their course is sacred, and consists of a 

combined sense of hope for the future and vengeance for the past. Of these two components, the backward-looking 

desire for vengeance may be the more important trigger for terrorism because the forward-looking component 

(called apocalyptic thinking or eschatology) produces wild-eyed fanatics who are more a danger to themselves and 

their own people [13]. 

The trick to successful use of terrorism in the name of religion rests upon convincing believers or convertees that a 

"neglected duty" exists in the fundamental, mainstream part of the religion. Religious terrorism is therefore, not 

about extremism, fanaticism, sects, or cults, but is instead all about a fundamentalist or militant interpretation of the 

basic tenets [13]. Most religious traditions are filled with plenty of violent images at their core, and destruction or 

self-destruction is a central part of the logic behind religion-based terrorism [11]. Evil is often defined as malignant 

narcissism from a theological point of view, and religion easily serves as moral cover for self-cantered terrorists and 

psychopaths [18]. 

Religion has always absorbed or absolved evil and guilt in what is called theodicy, or the study of how the existence 

of evil can be reconciled with a good and benevolent God. Most religions theodicize evil as: (1) A test of faith; (2) 

A product of free will; (3) part of God's plan; or (4) functional to let people learn right from wrong; and terrorists 

easily make use of these established theodicies or critiques of them [12]. 

59


Usual pattern in religious-based terrorism is for a psychopathic, spiritual leader to arise that is regarded as somewhat 

eccentric at first (a tendency toward messianism). But then, as this leader develops their charisma, they tend to 

appear more and more mainstream and scholarly. They begin to mingle political with religious issues (a tendency 

toward theocracy), and little-known religious symbols or pieces of sacred text take on new significance. Quite 

often, these symbols are claimed to be an important part of that religion's history that has somehow been neglected. 

The stage is then set for blaming somebody for the betrayal of this sacred heritage. First, the politicians in one's own 

country are blamed, but soon a foreign influence, like secularization or modernization is blamed. Militant religions 

quickly move to blaming a foreign influence for at least three reasons: (1) it does not serve the religion's survival 

interests; (2) it makes use of a long history of competition, animosity, and war between the world's different 

religions; and (3) any blaming to be done must occur on the symbolic or cosmic level, which is to say that the enemy 

cannot have a face, but must be some impersonal, evil-like force or influence. Hence, the most specific enemy a 

militant religion can have is some global trend like Secularization, Modernization, or Westernization. The strength 

of fundamentalism is its ability to guarantee that a radical change is coming without specifying exactly what it will 

look like. However, once a semi-vague enemy has been identified, the religious movement borrows the idea of 

"sovereignty" from the political realm and begins to see itself as the legitimate defender of the faith and legitimate 

restorer of dignity to the homeland. Most importantly, such "defenders" justify terrorist action in their 

accountability only to God, for it is God who has chosen them for this sacred mission in history [13]. 

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of religion as a theory of terrorism is how a devout believer could come to mix 

politics and religion. This typifies the rise and activities of religious terrorism (Boko Haram) in Northern Nigeria. 

First, Yusuf their dead leader came into the scene using philanthropy to attract followers by identifying gaps 

(poverty, corruption) in Nigerian polity. He gave the poor arms and also inculcated into them his rebellious position 

against Westernization and Nigerian Government; and his intention to Islamize (Sharia) the North as the only way 

they can escape injustice and attain the level which Allah (God) wants them to be. This is strengthened by the view 

that they are just tools Allah uses to do his will. 

Religious terrorism can be quite extreme in its tactics. Not only does it strive to avenge a long history of persecution 

and injustice, but it frequently carries out pre-emptive attacks. Leading to massive destruction of lives and bombing 

of government, religious and individual properties. This is because a high level of paranoia is usually maintained 

about the actual degree of threat that the enemy trend poses. 

Religious terrorism in Nigeria posses a significant threat to national development as it is evident in Northern Nigeria 

where economic and social activities in some of the highly volatile States (Yobe and Borno) have almost been 

grounded by the stream of killings, destruction of basic means of livelihood of the people and truncating of foreign 

and local investments; thereby becoming a cock on the wheel of development of the States and Nigeria at large. In 

all fairness, it should be said that most militant religious groups only adopt terrorism as a tactic of last resort. 

Religious terrorists demonstrate marvellous ingenuity in means, methods, and timing, but their target is flawed, and 

one can only wonder how strategically effective is their "symbolic" success from "striking at the heart of the 

infidels." Perhaps the whole reason for it is to bolster their reputation among other religious communities. This 

would be supported by the fact that most terrorist acts are scheduled on dates specifically designed to desecrate a 

competitor's religion. 

In summary, the above theories are just to help understand better the role of religion to national development. The 

common thing in both theories is the pursuit of a better tomorrow which is positive national development. However, 

the means and how to go about such pursuit is different even though all is geared towards national development. 

While one is pursuing it through peaceful co-existence, the other through conflict and violence. Generally, they are 

pushing for a society where honesty, justice, improved living standard etc are guaranteed. 

60


This brings us to Robert K. Merton’s Theory of eviance where some individuals in the society are ‘Conformist’ 

pursuing societal goals through societal accepted means) while others are ‘Innovators’ pursuing societal goals but 

through their own created means). While the first theory is about how religion can motivate people to work hard in 

order to better their living standard and the general economy of the country, the other theory explained how religion 

could be used to psych people to ta e arms to fight for so called ‘better society’ where everything are done as 

stipulated by religion. All these are just for us to understand the influence of religion on national development from 

both sides of the coin. 

3.RELIGIOUS CONFLICT AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

Nigeria is usually characterized as a deeply divided state in which major political issues are vigorously – some 

would say violently – contested along the lines of the complex ethnic, religious, and regional divisions in the 

country ([17] and Robinson, 2001). The issues that generate the fiercest contestation include those that are 

considered fundamental to the existence and legitimacy of the state, over which competing groups tend to adopt 

exclusionary, winner-take-all strategies. These include the control of state power, resource allocation, and 

citizenship. As a consequence, deeply divided states tend to be fragile and unstable because almost by definition, 

there are fewer points of convergence and consensus among the constituent groups than are required to effectively 

mitigate or contain the centrifugal forces that tear the society apart [7]. 

By virtue of its complex web of politically salient identities and history of chronic and seemingly intractable 

conflicts and instability, Nigeria can be rightly described as one of the most deeply divided states in Africa. From its 

inception as a colonial state, Nigeria has faced a perennial crisis of territorial or state legitimacy, which has often 

challenged its efforts at national cohesion, democratization, stability and economic transformation [16]. 

Religious identities in Nigeria are usually classified into three – Christian, Muslim and Traditional. Of the three, 

traditional religion is the least politically active; numbering several hundreds of ethnic groups and subgroups, 

villages, clans and kin groups; and, involving the worship of different gods and goddesses. In parts of the Kogi, 

Kwara, and Nassarawa States, masquerade activities associated with traditional religion have been a major source of 

conflicts [7]. However, Christian and Muslim identities have been the mainstay of religious differentiation and 

conflict, with Nigerian Muslims much more likely to evince or articulate a religious identity than Christians. 

Before we go further, it is pertinent to define what Religious Conflict means to this paper. Religious Conflict is all 

those conflicts that have religious undertone or that which one or both parties define as religious, or employs 

religious slogans and symbols to execute the conflict. In a religious conflict, the identity groups in the conflict 

organize and pursue their interests and needs under religious groups and organizations. Sympathies, loyalties and 

followership are religiously determined. Where the conflict is violent as it is always in Nigeria, people are usually 

killed and properties worth millions are destroyed; making people even poorer. 

Back to the discussion, underneath the broad Christian-Muslim categories are several sub-cleavages that have at one 

time or the other been politically salient or have the potential to be, and have generated intra-group conflicts. Among 

Christians, there are several denominations, including: the Protestants (Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, and Lutheran), 

the Catholics, the Evangelical Church of West Africa, the eventh ay Adventists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and a 

host of ‘home-grown’, ‘white garment’ Aladura and Celestial) and Pentecostal churches. 

Muslims on the other hand belong to different sects, including the Ahmadiyya, Sanusiyya, Tijanniyya and 

Quadriyya, among which there have been conflicts. There are also some umbrella organizations, which aim at the 

propagation of Islam. One of these is the Jamaatu Nasril Islam (JNI), which was founded by the Sardauna of Sokoto 

61


in 1961. Following the Iranian Islamic revolution of the 1970s, there was a surge of radical and fundamentalist 

activities especially among Muslim youths. This was the context within which some fundamentalist Muslim sects, 

notably the Maitatsine, Izala movement, the Muslim Brothers or Shiites, and most recently the Talibans, Boko 

Haram, emerged to demand, amongst others: pursuit of Islam based on Sharia law; the eradication of heretical 

innovations; and, the establishment of an Islamic state or theocracy [7]. The activities of these sects are major 

precipitant of the religious conflicts that proliferated Northern Nigerian political landscape since 1980s till date. 

Most of these involve conflicts between Muslims and Christians, with clear ethnic undertones, but some especially 

those involving the Izala and Boko Haram, also entailed anti-state mobilization. 

The resent emergence of the new terror group (Boko Haram) in Northern Nigeria has affected negatively the 

political, economic, social and environmental situation of the region and in extension Nigerian economy. The 

continuous killing and destruction of lives and properties in Northern Nigeria in the name of Islam has a negative 

effect on the economy of Northern States and Nigeria at large. Economic activities have almost been grounded by 

series of terrorist attacks in Borno and Yobe State, living people stranded, jobless and some refuges in their 

homeland. Many businessmen, companies both local and foreign have left some of these ‘worst hit’ tates depriving 

government millions of tax revenue that would have been collected if economic activities are booming. The 

government is only left with diversion of money meant for development of the country and improvement of living 

standard of people to heavy spending on security. This is a clear negative influence of religion on development of 

Nigerian economy. 

4.RELIGION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA 

The level of development of a country is affected by many factors. Economists tend to emphasize the impact of 

economic variables (Alesina and Rodrick, 1994) however; political and social factors can also be important 

determinants of growth (Barro, 1996). Religion is a source not only of intolerance, human rights violations, and 

extremist violence, but also of non-violent conflict transformation, the defence of human rights, integrity in 

government, and reconciliation and stability in divided societies (Appleby, 1996). 

Analyses of the implications of diversity in Nigeria and other countries suggest diversity is a necessary but not 

sufficient condition for conflict. In other words, the very fact that a country has different ethnic, communal, 

religious, and racial groups does not make division and conflicts inevitable [7]. In cross-country studies, economists 

have revisited Weber’s hypothesis. Barro and McCleary 003) assess the effect of religious participation and 

beliefs on a country’s rate of economic progress. Using international survey data for 59 countries drawn from the 

World Values Survey and the International Social Sciences Program conducted between 1981 and 1999, these 

authors found that greater diversity of religion is associated with higher church attendance and stronger religious 

beliefs. For a given level of church attendance, increases in some religious beliefs – notably belief in heaven, hell 

and an afterlife – tends to increase economic growth [19]. This is evident in the activities of churches in Nigeria 

where they assist some of their devoted members not only influencing their view of success and the need to acquire 

wealth but also help to secure job for them; thereby helping to improve their living standard and the country at large. 

Other studies have focused more on particular religions in varied historical time periods. For example, very useful 

insights have been gained by focusing on Islam and on Judaism. For Islam, there have been detailed investigations 

into financial systems in the Middle East including zakat (alms for charity) and the manner in which Islamic banks 

have been using a financing method equivalent to the rate of interest to overcome adverse selection and information 

problems. This is also practical in Nigeria. The routine giving of arms to the needy during Christmas celebration or 

Ramadan is a way religion help to reduce poverty by encouraging ‘the haves to give to have not’ in order to be given 

by God. The introduction of Islamic Banking by Central Bank of Nigeria no doubt, will improve the economic 

power of the borrowers. A bank that shares profit and loss with the borrower will invariably reduce the risk of doing 

business than the conventional ban s that ‘wins’ in any business they enter with their clients. This will ma e fund 

62


available for those that have idea of a profitable business to create wealth, employment and also add value to the 

economy by paying taxes to the government. 

Religion could also foster development through encouragement of members to acquire formal education. If formal 

education is significant to high standard of living, then religion may explain why there are many poor people in 

northern Nigeria than other regions especially South-West and South-Eastern Nigeria. This is because the practice of 

women in Purdah in Northern Nigeria could account for the low enrolment of women in former education 

institution. 

The apparent linkage between religion and development attracts criticism. According to [15] and [5], there is either 

no logical reason to link religion to economic development or insufficient empirical evidence of any actual linkage. 

[20] expressed high skepticism of seeing capitalist development as guided by religion. He argued that any complex 

system of ideas can be manipulated to serve any particular social or political objective. Any connection between 

religion and economics is likely the one in which the latter is cause and the former effect. 

5.SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 

Religion and development are seemingly inseparable. Conceptually religion provides believers a guideline about life 

and the life-after and thus provides much-needed incentives for indulging in productive activities during lifetime. 

Religions can be seen as a promoter of growth as they direct people towards honesty, discipline, hard work, 

education, thriftiness (leading to savings essential for investment and thereby growth) and absenteeism from harmful 

activities; though it can also encourage violence in the name of doing the will of God. Most of the empirical studies 

point to a positive relationship between religion and economic growth and development. Yet, there is no consensus 

on the precise causal relationship (one-way or both ways) between the two. 

Nevertheless, we can probably conclude that the relationship between religion and development is likely to be 

complementary as long as religious beliefs and practices promote ‘moderation’ rather than ‘extremes’. Also, there 

should be no prejudice against any religion as the studies conducted so far have failed to prove the superiority of any 

single religion over others in terms of their economic performance and behavioral changes on the society at large. 

However, it is germane to mention that any policy (or a system) based exclusively on certain religious principles that 

has potential to serve the entire global community should adopted. The recent surge of interest in Islamic finance in 

various non-Islamic countries (USA, UK, and Singapore) can be cited as manifestation of such a phenomenon. A 

peaceful coexistence of various religious groups (or sects) in a country and various nations with different religious 

affiliations within the global community is a prerequisite for growth and prosperity in today’s highly interconnected 

world. 

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[11] Juergensmeyer, M. Terror in the mind of God: The global rise of religious violence . Berkeley: University of 

California Press. 2001 

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Understanding terrorism . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.2004. 

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[20] Wallerstein, I. The Modern World System. New York: Academic Press. 1974 

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64


TEACHING BUSINESS ENGLISH FOR ARAB SPEAKERS 

Mira M. Alameddine 

Rafic Hariri University 

alameddine.mira@gmail.com 

alameddinemm@rhu.edu.lb 

Abstract 

Teaching Business English (L2) for target learners whose L1 is Arabic requires certain procedures. Instructors must 

address problems that their Arabic learners will probably face in acquiring Business communication in L2. This 

paper will discuss the major problems that learners whose L1 is Arabic face in learning Business English which is 

L2 and what the role of the instructor is in guiding the learners to overcome these obstacles and acquire the desired 

skills. Instructors need to address the four problems that their Arab learners are probably going to encounter. These 

problems are: 1) negative transfer; 2) the difference in writing strategies; 3) prepositional knowledge; and 4) 

collocational patterns. Thus, instructors have to teach the learners to overcome negative transfer, include practices 

that guide the learners to overcome the differences in strategies of business communication that exist between L1 

and L2 and address the cultural differences between the two main languages. 

Keywords: Teaching, Business, English 


The Arabs value the English language. An increasing population of their students goes to English schools because 

the language is in high demand in the work place. In this manner, what sets the students or future employees from 

the rest of the candidates is her/his ability to communicate properly in English, particularly using English in the 

business world. Arab students learn business English to fulfill work-related needs. They enroll in such courses in the 

hope that the skills given in such courses will be an asset for them to be employed by a multinational corporation. 

These corporations located in the Arab world usually seek employees who can communicate with foreign managers, 

write and reply to e-mails, letters, read formal and informal reports and perform other tasks that are typical in the 

workplace [4]. However, as EFL learners, Arab business English students face some difficulties. They face 

problems in speaking and writing. They not only have to learn the standard techniques of business communication 

(such as e-mails, letters, memos & formal and informal reports), they also have to learn them in English! They need 

to acquire the language to communicate with it. 

Arabic and English language differ in many ways. Arab speakers face several problems while learning English, such 

as phonological and morphological difficulties and structural as well [16]. When teaching English for Arab students, 

teachers have to keep in mind that the Arabic writing system goes from right to left and that the letters are written 

with-respect-to their position in the word. Moreover, orthographies of the two languages are different and at times 

present some difficulties in pronunciation and spelling [16]. 

What does this mean to the business English instructor? Learning English as a second language for Arabs has a lot 

of implications for instructors. Instructors of business English have to consider the principles of second language 

acquisition (SLA) and the four major problems that their students might face in acquiring ESP- especially business 

English. 

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2.SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITOIN 

According to Stephen Krashen 1 ) “Acquisition requires meaningful interactions in the target language - natural 

communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they 

are conveying and understanding.” Moreover, they need teaching methods that give the learners ‘comprehensible 

input’ in situations that don not posit anxiety and contain messages that students want to hear. These methods should 

not force the learners to produce L2 in the beginning of the acquisition of the language. They leave room for them to 

produce L2 when they are ready to do so. This method supplies communicative and comprehensible input [17]. This 

requires the teachers, or ‘practitioners’ 5 , to design the course and materials accordingly. Their course should 

include activities that allow the learners acquire the desired skills through meaningful interactions while providing 

them with enough time to assimilate the information and then produce then with comfort. 

As practitioners, Business English teachers need to address in their teaching, the following four problems their Arab 

learners are likely to encounter. These are: 1) Negative Transfer; 2) Different Writing Strategies; 3) Prepositional 

Knowledge; and 4) Collocational Pattern. 

3.NEGATIVE TRANSFER 

Samuel Johnson stated in 17 1 that “To use two languages familiarly and without contaminating one by the other, is 

very difficult.” This statement still hold true in our present time. What Johnson expressed then is now nown as 

transfer. In its regular meaning, transfer is “to cause something to pass from one place to another” Merriam- 

Webster, 2012). There are two types of transfer: negative and positive. The former is the use of prior knowledge in 

the production of L2 which results into unacceptable forms, for it damages, hinders and delays the acquisition of L2. 

The latter is when L1 is used to gain L2 and it results in successful acquisition of L2. It is the former that Business 

English teachers should look into to give considerations while teaching their students. For example, L1 hindering the 

acquisition of L2 could result into distorted word order. In Arabic (L1), the structure is: verb+subject+object, while 

in English (L2), it is subject+verb+object. So the sentence become Ate Maya the apple instead of Maya ate the 

apple. Moreover, negative transfer can lead to awkward translation of expressions. For instance, an Arab student 

might say “I cut the street.” Although the sentence is grammatically correct, it is semantically incorrect. The correct 

form is “I crossed the street.” 

Negative transfer is when particular elements in L1 become obstacles in acquiring L2. [10] stated that it is when L1 

negatively affects the performance of L2, the target language to be learned. Negative transfer has been studied 

several times over the years (Diab, 1996; [8] [13] Farouq, 1998) and the results have revealed almost the same 

findings: that L1 posits negative effects on learning L2. The negative effects can be reflected in the intertringualtransfer 

and interference. The former is when the students’ L1 habits hinder their acquisition of the patterns and 

rules of L2. The latter is the negative effect of L1 on the acquisition of L2 such as translating form Arabic. Hence, 

Arab learners aiming at acquiring L2-English- might come up with wrong expressions such as: 

� Dead Sea vs. Sea Dead 

� We go to work vs. Go we to work 

� By accomplishing these plans I will insure myself a great business plan. 

� Putting strategies for business management works my brain. 

� Most employees, when they wor extra hours … 

� They (money) smell great. 

� Many others ways. 

� I am disabled I can’t wor anymore! 

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Teachers/Practitioners of business English need to keep this in mind when conducting their classes. They should 

train the learners to adjust their linguistic practices when learning L2. 

4.THE DIFFERENCES IN WRITING STRATEGIES 

Culture is “the way we do things here” or “the way in which a group of people solves problem” 5 . Cultures differ 

in their expectations regarding rhetorical patterns or logical organization of any text [1]. Language usually reflects 

culture and culture does affect language. Thus, written discourse of Arab learners depends on Arabic logic and 

cultural patterns. This renders Arabic writing filled with embellished literary style as opposed to the English rhetoric 

that is made in a cold and highly impersonal style [16]. Moreover, Arab writing bases its style on the Quran and 

refers to religious concepts as supporting points [19]. 

Further differences occur. To begin with, in Arabic, the writing system begins from right and not left. Syntactic 

differences between the two languages also exist. Moreover, Arabs face three main types of errors in their verb 

phrase; these are verb formation, tenses and subject-verb agreement. Learners make mistakes in the tense sequences 

and confuse the perfect tenses [14]. They also exhibit an overuse of coordinating sentences because their ideas in 

Arabic are connected with ‘and’. In his research, iab 1 ) comments on how in Arabic items in a series are 

preceded by the conjunction ‘wa’ that is equivalent to ‘and’ so learners end up with sentences such as “For the 

employees to follow my demands and realize how important it is to follow them and how hard I work to achieve our 

purpose.” 

These problems posit problems for the learners because they cause language that contradicts with the language of 

business, which is characteri ed by “sense of purpose” . The purpose of business is to reach an end. Hence, 

language’s purpose is to send a message and its success depends on how well the message is received and 

understood. For this success to take place, language has to be clear, logical and direct to the point. Messages such as 

the examples give below posit an serious obstacle in business communication. 

� I have been doing that since a long time ago. 

� These workers are smarts. 

� What I want to be? 

� You have a brother? 

� I have planned for the project for a long time. 

5.PREPOSITIONAL KNOWLEDGE 

Prepositions used in Arabic and English language have different purposes. There are some in English that have their 

equivalents in Arabic; however, there are also a few that do not have. Pittman (as cited by [11]) recognized that 

English prepositions are difficult to learn and teach. Takahaski in 1969 (as cited by [11]) agrees with Pittman that 

using preposition properly is one of the major problems for learners of English. 

Arab students learning L2 (English) usually depend on their L1 prepositional knowledge to understand the use of 

prepositions in L2. This posits difficulties for them because L2 prepositions are difficult to learn. In their study, 

Lakkis and Abdul Malak (2000) revealed that Arab learners did not use prepositions with verbs such as like, 

compete, wait, result, collide, and engage because these verbs in their Arabic equivalence do not use prepositions. 

While when using English verbs whose Arabic equivalence use prepositions, most learners used the verb with the 

preposition correctly. 

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Many of the English prepositions do not have literal equivalents in L1. There many prepositions in English that have 

the same function since “prepositions seldom have a one to one correspondence between English and Arabic. An 

Arabic preposition may be translated by several English prepositions while and English usage may have several 

Arabic translations” 1 this posits difficulties for the students because then they are unable to choose which 

preposition to use. 

� In my father’s footsteps. 

� In my way to school. 

� Getting an early start about the project can help by determining about the time to execute it. 

� I have trouble at wor because ▼ the lac of s ills in management. 

� Come to here 

6.COLLOCATIONAL PATTERNS 

Research indicates that differences in the structures of L1 and L2 and differences and/or similarities of collacations 

of the two languages can result in interference for L1 learners while learning their target language L2 [15]. 

Collocation means “sequence of lexical items which habitually co-occur, but are nonetheless fully transparent in the 

sense that each lexical constituent is also a semantic constituent” Curse, 1 7, p 40). It is the “group of words 

which occur repeatedly in a language” . According to Oxford Collocations ictionary 011) “the way words 

combine in a language to produce natural-sounding speech and writing.” 

Recently, the role of collocation has become important in learning L2 since learners learn and use words in context. 

Without knowing the correct co-text with which a word is used, learners of L2 can not be said to have mastered the 

word of L2 (Phythian-Sence & Wagner, 2007 as cited by [15]). Collocation problems exist when a difference 

between source- and target-language word partners exist and usually it is the result of negative transfer. Hence, 

collocational patterns produce problems for Arab students while acquiring L2. So learners might end up making 

mistakes such as those described below. 

7.IMPLICATIONS 

� Do mistakes instead of Make mistakes 

� Give somebody a smile instead of Smiles at somebody 

� Become/Get bankrupt instead of Go bankrupt 

� Grow flowers instead of Plant flowers 

� Raise an objection instead of Present an objection 

� High sounds instead of Loud sounds 

Arabic students learning English face problems in their communication: they translate from Arabic, and have 

difficulty in pronunciation and almost all of them face difficulty in communicating freely in English. Instructors of 

Business English, whose native language could be Arabic or not, need to take into consideration the four problems 

mentioned above. 

Instructors of Business English should: 

1. Help their students use English by involving them in real-life situations. They should use authentic 

material because these include real-life situations and terminologies that might be missing in text 

books; thus the content of the material becomes useful for the teacher and the learner [6]. 

2. Provide their students wit hands on activities that will help the students be more accurate. 

3. Supply the students with exercises that help them focus on verb “be” and article usage. 

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4. Use sentence combing exercises that stress subject-verb agreement, subject and object relative pronoun 

deletion rules and plural formation. 

5. Provide them with rules (when possible) that help the students choose the correct preposition [11]. 

6. Pay attention to teaching the proper expressions [15] by providing them with sufficient practice 

opportunities through hands-on business activities. 

7. Make sure that they provide the learners with new supporting arguments for their formal reports so as 

not to keep repeating the main ideas. 

8. Give enough practice on how to write a paragraph so as not to write multiple supporting points within 

a paragraph. 

9. Work at supplying their Business English learners with exercises that help them write correct form of 

sentence based on analysis of ideas so. In this way they would avoid synthesizing ideas by using 

coordination and instead use subordination depending on the relationship analysis. 

The role of the Business English teacher is two-fold: s/he has to teach her/his Arab learners the English language 

and how to communicate in business using that language. To do so, the teacher has to make sure that the steps 

applied in second language acquisition are followed and that the major obstacles faced by Arab learners, namely, 

negative transfer, the difference in writing strategies, prepositional knowledge, and collocational patterns are 

properly addressed. 

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