Aug 2026· EPRA International Journal of Economics Business and Management Studies
Abstract
Teaching hospitals in Rivers State continue to grapple with weak innovative behaviour among their workforce, a challenge manifested in sluggish idea generation and the frequent failure of promising improvements to reach implementation, even as investments in technology intensify. This study therefore examined the relationship between technological adoption and worker’s innovative behaviour of teaching hospitals in Rivers State, with technological adoption operationalised through technological infrastructure and technological utilisation, and worker’s innovative behaviour proxied by worker’s idea generation and worker’s idea implementation. Anchored in the Diffusion of Innovations Theory and the Technology Acceptance Model, the study adopted a positivist philosophy and a cross-sectional survey design. The accessible population comprised 320 healthcare workers drawn from the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, spanning clinical, administrative, technical and support staff. The Krejcie and Morgan table yielded a sample of 175 respondents selected through simple random sampling, and a structured questionnaire served as the instrument for data collection. Of the instruments administered, 155 (88.57%) were retrieved and 145 (82.86%) were adequately completed and usable. The hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling via SmartPLS 4.1.1.9. The results revealed that technological infrastructure had a negligible, negative and non-significant relationship with worker’s idea generation (β = -0.004, p = 0.583), but a weak, positive and significant relationship with worker’s idea implementation (β = 0.278, p = 0.001); technological utilisation exhibited a very strong, positive and significant relationship with worker’s idea generation (β = 0.981, p = 0.000) and a moderate, positive and significant relationship with worker’s idea implementation (β = 0.414, p = 0.004). The study concludes that the actual utilisation of technology, rather than its mere availability, is the dominant driver of innovative behaviour, and recommends that hospital management prioritise the intensive, work-embedded use of existing systems.
This paper describes the formulation of a numerical model for simulating environmentally driven one-dimensional (1D) ground movements of expansive clay. The formulation is based on a finite-element model that simulates the redistribution of matric suction through a diffusion-type equation, explicitly accounting for volume changes due to wetting and drying of the clay. We synthesize and modify highly nonlinear constitutive relationships for (1) hysteretic soil water retention; (2) reversible soil shrinkage and expansion of clay; and (3) hydraulic conductivity, explicitly incorporating desiccation cracks through a multidomain framework and assuming a critical surface crack depth. These models are well-calibrated to published laboratory tests on a reference expansive clay, Denver bentonite. We demonstrate capabilities of the proposed formulation to simulate the response of a homogeneous expansive clay to periods of drying and wetting, considering the initial matric suction, saturated hydraulic conductivity of the intact clay, and critical crack depth as three primary sources of uncertainty. We compare ensemble model simulations with measured ground movements from an instrumented expansive clay test site in Texas over a 3-year period using detailed records of potential evapotranspiration and precipitation. By assigning weights to the ensemble simulations based on their performance, we constrain the ranges of the three key uncertain parameters. The results showed very reasonable first-order agreement with the measured data and highlight the potential of the proposed formulation. We anticipate that more reliable predictions can be achieved through direct measurements of actual in situ evaporation rates and local soil properties.
Mahdi Seyyedan, Jiali Ma, Ivo Rosa Montenegro et al.· Journal of Geotechnical and...· 1 citation
A rational design for next-generation thermo-responsive nanocarriers is proposed, in which polymer chemistry, nanoparticle structure, experimental characterization, and mechanistic modelling are integrated from the earliest stages of material development.
M. Schifone, Giuseppe Nunziata, Filippo Rossi· Advances in Colloid and Inte...· 1 citation
This paper develops the economics of artificial intelligence as a single connected structure, from the physics of the production function to the aggregate growth constraint and the valuation of the firms building and adopting it. Part I derives the cost of capability from scaling laws, shows why deployed models are systematically overtrained, and estimates the task-success slope directly from 23,235 public evaluation runs: $\hat\beta=0.83$ with no detectable release-date trend. Part II treats market structure: minimum efficient scale, the two-tier equilibrium in which open weights contest the trailing edge but never the frontier, and inference as a capacity-constrained short-run market that rations rather than prices. Part III is the core. We replace the standard automation assignment rule with one that prices reliability, obtaining an automation calendar $t_{\mathrm{aut}}=t_{1/2}+(\tau/\beta)\log_2\gamma$ in which verification cost, not task difficulty, sets the date; derive optimal checkpoint spacing $k^\star\approx\sqrt{v_{\mathrm{ver}}/\lambda}$; and prove the exact best-of-$k$ result. Against a sound verifier, sampling divides the reliability lag by $k$ in the small-$k$ regime and does better outside it; against an unsound verifier, it leaves an error floor that no amount of sampling removes. Part IV aggregates: diffusion inherits its time dispersion from verification costs, and revenue growth is governed by the density of tasks at the current threshold. Part V proves a Baumol bound --- with elasticity of substitution below one, aggregate growth converges to that of the least automatable essential input --- and states three jointly necessary conditions for explosive growth. Part VI treats measurement, policy, and financial markets. Part VII states the investment bridge: technological importance, industry profit, and security return are distinct objects, and a coherent valuation must respect the automation calendar, rent migration, capital consumption, and expectations already in price. The full valuation architecture is reserved for a separate companion paper. Part VIII states eighteen open problems.
Miquel Noguer Alonso· Zenodo (CERN European Organi...· 0 citations
A new method for surgically removing training examples from a model reveals that as datasets grow, the link between what a model learns and what it produces dissolves.