Election Gifting and the Ordeal of Democracy in Nigeria

Over-time, researchers have failed to show how citizens share, if not all, a part of the blame in Nigeria's failing democracy. Through election gifting, the community of voters in Nigeria have been selling their commonwealth to politicians who should not be anywhere close to power. Using secondary sources of data and relying on Robert Dahl’s theory of democracy, the paper argues that since the people are the custodians of the political mandate in any democracy, they should be held accountable when there is a problem. The paper further identifies the history, effect, scope, and predisposing factors of election gifting in Nigeria. This paper focuses on the fact that the non-evaluative and clientelist approach to democracy are the reason for the sad realities in Nigeria and concludes that only the engagement in a civil society can revive Nigeria’s failing democracy

First-principles investigations of the magnetic phase diagram of Gd1−x_{1-x}Cax_{x}MnO3_{3}

We studied for the first time the magnetic phase diagram of the rare-earth manganites series Gd$_{1-x}$Ca$_{x}$MnO$_{3}$ (GCMO) over the full concentration range based on density functional theory. GCMO has been shown to form solid solutions. We take into account this disordered character by adapting special quasi random structures at different concentration steps. The magnetic phase diagram is mainly described by means of the magnetic exchange interactions between the Mn sites and Monte Carlo simulations were performed to estimate the corresponding transition temperatures. They agree very well with recent experiments. The hole doped region $x<0.5$ shows a strong ferromagnetic ground state, which competes with A-type antiferromagnetism at higher Ca concentrations $x>0.6$.Comment: Submitted to PR

Ab-initio study of structure and dynamics properties of crystalline ice

We investigated the structural and dynamical properties of a tetrahedrally coordinated crystalline ice from first principles based on density functional theory within the generalized gradient approximation with the projected augmented wave method. First, we report the structural behaviour of ice at finite temperatures based on the analysis of radial distribution functions obtained by molecular dynamics simulations. The results show how the ordering of the hydrogen bonding breaks down in the tetrahedral network of ice with entropy increase in agreement with the neutron diffraction data. We also calculated the phonon spectra of ice in a 3x1x1 supercell by using the direct method. So far, due to the direct method used in this calculation, the phonon spectra is obtained without taking into account the effect of polarization arising from dipole-dipole interactions of water molecules which is expected to yield the splitting of longitudinal and transverse optic modes at the Gamma-point. The calculated longitudinal acoustic velocities from the initial slopes of the acoustic mode is in a reasonable agreement with the neutron scatering data. The analysis of the vibrational density of states shows the existence of a boson peak at low energy of translational region a characteristic common to amorphous systems.Comment: International symposium on structure and dynamics of heterogeneous system SDHS'0

Simultaneous Quantification of Ciprofloxacin, Quinine and 3-hyrdoxyquinine in Human Plasma using a HPLC Method

Malaria has been shown to strongly predispose patients in areas of malaria endemicity to bacteremia with severe outcomes, thus justifying the use of antibiotics in combination with antimalarial therapy in patients with severe malaria. This study describes a High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic (HPLC) method for simultaneous determinations of Ciprofloxacin (CPN), Quinine (QN), and its major metabolite, 3-Hydroxyquinine (3-HQN), in human plasma. Following a simple precipitation with acetonitrile, chromatographic separation was achieved on a reversed-phase Agilent Zorbax (CN) column (5 µm, 150 X 4.6 mm i.d) using a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile: potassium dihydrogen phosphate (pH = 2.8; 0.02 M) (42:58, v/v). Retention times for CPN, 3-HQN, IS and QN were 2.7, 3.3, 3.6 and 4.9 minutes respectively. The limits of detection and validated lower limits of quantitation were 30 and 70 ng/ml for both QN and 3-HQN while the corresponding values were 50 and 100 ng/ml for CPN, respectively. The new HPLC method here developed, when compared with previous methods for the analysis of either or both drugs is simple, rapid, selective, reproducible and costeffective. It is also suitable for conducting a simultaneous therapeutic monitoring of quinine and ciprofloxacin in patients when concomittantly administered as demonstrated in five healthy volunteers

Substituents Effect on the Kinetics and Mechanisms of Formation of Copper (II) and Nickel (II) Complexes of Some Β-Diketones

Chelates of β – diketones (R1COCH2COR2) with transition metals have been found to possess a wide range of properties and application, some of which are dependent on the substituents (R1 and R2).  Copper(II) and Nickel(II) complexes of β – diketones in which R1= C6H5 and R2 = C6H5 (dbm), R2 = CH3 (bza) R2 = CF3 (tfpbd) and R1 = C4H3S, R2 = CF3(tta) were synthesised and characterised using UV, IR, elemental analysis and magnetic susceptibility. The probable influence of the substituents on the kinetics and mechanisms of formation of the complexes were investigated with the aid of a Thermostated Schimadu 1800 uv-visible spectrophotometer. The reactions were studied at wavelengths characteristics of each complex. Results show the six coordinate copper(II) and nickel(II) complexes have probable distorted octahedral geometry while the four coordinate Ni(dbm)2 is tetrahedral. The kinetics data suggests an influence of the diketonate substituents on the copper(II) and nickel(II) complexes in solution is in the order C6H5 &gt; CH3 &gt;CF3 &gt; C4H3S and CF3 &gt; C6H5 &gt; CH3 &gt; C4H3S respectively. Solvent influence (k-1) was constant in the range 0.007 – 0.008 for fluorosubstituted complexes and least at 0.004 – 0.005 mol-1s-1 in the alkyl substituted complexes. The steady state approximation gave solvent independent rates k1k2 at 25oC, in the copper(II) complexes, k2 is greater than k1 (k2 &gt; k1) , with k2 constant while in the nickel(II) complexes, the values of k2 was less than k1 and ascribed to rate determining and varies with the nickel(II) - ligand systems studied. Keywords: β-diketones, Copper II and Nickel II Complexes, Substituents effect, Kinetics

Magnetic structure of bulk GdMnO₃: Influence of strain

Internal structural distortions are of great interest in the determination of electronic and magnetic properties of the strong correlated rare earth manganites. When combined with external structural modifications like uniaxial or biaxial strains, structural distortions can lead to the emergence of new magnetic ground states. This realization is seemingly more probable with the low-band-width manganite GdMnO3 on the grounds that it is located in the magnetoelectric phase diagram of orthorhombic rare earth manganites between the A-type antiferromagnetic (AFM) order and the cycloidal spin orders. Herein, a thorough analysis of the magnetic structure of GdMnO3 based on the density functional theory connected with a classical Heisenberg model together with Monte Carlo calculations is presented. It is found whether a compressive uniaxial strain along the c direction or biaxial strain on the ab plane favors a ferromagnetic (FM) ground state over the AFM one. On the contrary, a tensile strain also on the ab plane is likely to stabilize the E-type AFM order