Lithology, age and structure of early proterozoic greenstone belts, West African shield

Lithologic and chemical data have been compiled for belts in the Proterozoic terrane. Available stratigraphic information from geologic maps of these areas indicate that a typical sequence is comprised of predominately mafic lava flows (basalt-andesite) at the base, which are overlain by felsic volcanic rocks including pyroclastic rocks and lavas. Lithostratigraphic data indicate the volcanic succession is 6-8 km thick. This is followed by 3-4 km of basaltic lava flows which are locally pillowed, the top of the unit is marked by a distinctive manganese formation (MF) consisting of Mn-Fe rich cherts up to 200 m thick. The youngest volcanic unit consists of mafic tuffs and breccia with a distinctive fragmental texture. Of about 100 chemical analyses reported calc-alkaline rocks constitute 55% and tholeiites 45%. Quartz-normative basalt constitutes 99% of the rock type in the tholeiitic suite. In the calc-alkaline suite, 9% of the analyses is basalt, 45% andesite and the rest is dacite and rhyodacite. The available data lead to the conclusion that the minimum age for the volcanic activity must be between 2200 and 2100 million years. It is significant that Archean ages have not been reported from any of the volcanic belts (1-10)

How poor public transit makes idiots of us all

America's mass transit systems are in a sorry state, and only a tiny minority of Americans makes use of them. For Kafui Attoh America's transit is "idiotic" in two ways: in the sense that it is stupid to have not invested more in it, and in the way it isolates those unable to use cars, excluding them from urban public ..

Rights in Transit: Public Transportation and the Right to the City in California\u27s East Bay

In recent years, a number of researchers in geography and in urban studies have taken to the idea of the right to the city. These scholars have drawn on the idea to frame debates on topics as wide ranging as urban social movements, the regulation of urban public space, to the relationship between cities and citizenship. Implicit in this literature is a conception of the city and of urban space in which political conflict and class struggle are dominating features. This dissertation seeks to add to that discussion by focusing on debates over transit policy in California\u27s East Bay. In addition to contributing to scholarship on the right to the city, this dissertation also broadly encroaches upon work in transportation geography. Drawing on three months of fieldwork, this dissertation makes two arguments. First, it argues that debates over rights ought to matter for those interested in the geography of urban transportation, and second, it argues for seeing urban mass transit as central to securing a right to the city. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with transit activists and a focus group with transit dependent riders, I highlight the degree to which the democratic rights of many East Bay residents hinge upon transit access. For many of these residents, a right to the city means a right to transit. Across six chapters of the dissertation, I also focus more broadly on the relationship between transit policy and conflicts over rights -- whether these conflicts take the form of labor disputes or civil rights lawsuits. These conflicts, I argue, have shaped the geography of transit in the region. While the dissertation highlights the importance of rights and the right to the city for understanding both the geography of urban transit, as well as transit\u27s role in the public life of cities, it also highlights some of the challenges and contradictions associated with the idea of the right to the city. Toward the end of the dissertation I address these challenges and contradictions head-on by arguing for understanding the right to the city as a right against the idiocy of urban life

Security and the 2015 elections: issues and perspectives

Politics is the quest for power, influence and authority and for the simple reason that political office aids the allocation of resources in transition states it is often viewed as warfare with attendant security implications. Security which is the freedom from danger or damage whether physical or emotional is imperative in the electoral process. Elections in Nigeria are full of acrimony and therefore fraught with danger. Election security has been a major challenge to both the election umpire (Independent National Electoral Commission) and the citizenry as political parties and their supporters view the electoral process as a “do or die” affair resulting in brigandage and electoral malfeasance. The just concluded 2015 general elections were not an exception as some of the elections were characterized by pockets of violence and security breaches despite the rigorous preparations put in place by the Independent National Electoral Commission to stem the tide of insecurity during the process. Some states experienced some form of security breaches such as replacement of trained adhoc staff, connivance of security personnel with politicians and holding INEC staff hostage to corrupt the electoral process. The methodology for the paper was qualitative. A total of 20 respondents comprising of top officials of INEC and some members of the public were interviewed for the paper. Anchoring the analysis on the Political Economy and Systems theories the paper concludes that a mobile 21st Century Police force can ensure the security of the electoral process in Nigeria.Key words: Security, Elections, Power, Authority, Mobile force

Geochemistry of volcanic rocks from the Wawa greenstone belt

The Wawa greenstone belt is located in the District of Algoma and extends east-northeast from Lake Superior to the western part of the Sudbury District in Ontario, Canada. Recent mapping by Attoh has shown that an unconformity at the base of the Dore' Formation and equivalent sedimentary rocks marks a significant stratigraphic break which can be traced throughout the volcanic belt. This break has been used to subdivide the volcanic-sedimentary into pre- and post-Dore' sequences. The pre-Dore' sequence includes at least two cycles of mafic-to-felsic volcanism, each capped by an iron-formation unit. The post-Dore' sequence includes an older mafic-to-felsic unit, which directly overlies sedimentary rocks correlated with the Dore' Formation, and a younger felsic breccia unit interpreted to have formed as debris flows from a felsic volcanic center. In the present study, samples of both the pre-and post-Dore' volcanic sequences were analyzed for major and trace elements, incuding rare earths (REE). This preliminary study is part of an ongoing program to assess the petrogenesis of the volcanic rocks of the Wawa greenstone belt

Rhyolitic components of the Michipicoten greenstone belt, Ontario: Evidence for late Archaen intracontinental rifts or convergent plate margins in the Canadian Shield?

Rhyolitic rocks often are the dominant felsic end member of the biomodal volcanic suites that characterize many late Archean greenstone belts of the Canadian Shield. The rhyolites primarily are pyroclastic flows (ash flow tuffs) emplaced following plinian eruptions, although deposits formed by laval flows and phreatomagmatic eruptions also are presented. Based both on measured tectono-stratigraphic sections and provenance studies of greenstone belt sedimentary sequences, the rhyolites are believed to have been equal in abundance to associated basaltic rocks. In many recent discussions of the tectonic setting of late Archean Canadian greenstone belts, rhyolites have been interpreted as products of intracontinental rifting . A study of the tectono-stratigraphic relationships, rock associations and chemical characteristics of the particularly ell-exposed late Archean rhyolites of the Michipicoten greenstone belt, suggests that convergent plate margin models are more appropriate

From Proprietary to High-Level Trigger-Action Programming Rules: A Natural Language Processing Approach

With the rise of popular task automation or IoT platforms such as 'If This Then That (IFTTT)', users can define rules to enable interactions between smart devices in their environment and thereby improve their daily lives. However, the rules authored via these platforms are usually tied to the platforms and sometimes even to the specific devices for which they have been defined. Therefore, when a user wishes to move to a different environment controlled by a different platform and/or devices, they need to recreate their rules for the new environment. The rise in the number of smart devices further adds to the complexity of rule authoring since users will have to navigate an ever-changing landscape of IoT devices. In order to address this problem, we need human-computer interaction that works across the boundaries of specific IoT platforms and devices. A step towards this human-computer interaction across platforms and devices is the introduction of a high-level semantic model for end-user IoT development, enabling users to create rules at a higher level of abstraction. However, many users who already got used to the rule representation in their favourite tool might be unwilling to learn and adapt to a new representation. We present a method for translating proprietary rules to a high-level semantic model by using natural language processing techniques. Our translation enables users to work with their familiar rule representation language and tool, and at the same time apply their rules across different IoT platforms and devices

The politics of oil and the challenge for the development of Nigeria

The paper shows how the discovery of oil in Oloibiri in 1956 foisted clientelism on Nigeria and in the process, corruption and cronyism became normative. The exploration of oil in the Niger Delta region degraded the environment destroying ecosystem resulting in polluted fish ponds, drinking water sources and other means of livelihood. Additionally, the continuous flaring of gases has resulted in acid rain and other forms of diseases within the region. Using information from journals, library sources and online resources the paper argued using Immanuel Wallerstein’s systems theory that multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in the oil industry exploit the resources in the Niger Delta without investing commensurate resources in the region. This has not improved the poverty level as less than 5% of Niger Deltans work in the oil industry. The gender dynamic is even worse as less than 1% of Niger delta women work in the sector and most are holding pink jobs. The resultant effect is that the Nigerian economy continues to strink while development has become stunted. The paper posits that oil represents the ‘Dutch disease’ for Nigeria and Nigerians and has impelled underdevelopment. It avers that the misplaced priority of the ruling elites who are often drawn into the struggle for oil wealth that leaves them engrossed with what they can grab from the national cake which the oil wealth represents and not how to develop the nation frustrates all development agenda. It concludes that the intractable neglect of infrastructural facilities in Nigeria represents the flip-side of oil politics in Nigeria.Keywords: Politics, Oil, Challenge, Nigeria and Developmen

Trafficked Women, Patriarchy and Social Media: The Case of Benin City, Nigeria

Trafficking in women remains a global concern despite the local and multilateral efforts to curb it. This work explores a classic case of Benin City, Nigeria, by examining the role that social media and family pressure play in stoking the problem. A cross-sectional analysis of the relevant variables, interviews with government officials, and discussions by victims on the issue show that women are trafficked as a result of the patriarchal tradition that places a little premium on females. The patriarchate of human trafficking is well established in literature. What is surprising in this case is that the networking and interactive characteristics of social media have escalated the problem and emboldened the actors. Unless the authorities take adequate measures to monitor online job advertisements to determine their authenticity, and stock up public libraries with anti-trafficking materials to enlighten vulnerable persons, the problem may become compounded. It may also be more than what the traffic can bear if inter-government agencies do not put in place robust cross border policies to checkmate the activities of traffickers

Trafficked Women, Patriarchy and Social Media: The Case of Benin City, Nigeria

Trafficking in women remains a global concern despite the local and multilateral efforts to curb it. This work explores a classic case of Benin City, Nigeria, by examining the role that social media and family pressure play in stoking the problem. A cross-sectional analysis of the relevant variables, interviews with government officials, and discussions by victims on the issue show that women are trafficked as a result of the patriarchal tradition that places a little premium on females. The patriarchate of human trafficking is well established in literature. What is surprising in this case is that the networking and interactive characteristics of social media have escalated the problem and emboldened the actors. Unless the authorities take adequate measures to monitor online job advertisements to determine their authenticity, and stock up public libraries with anti-trafficking materials to enlighten vulnerable persons, the problem may become compounded. It may also be more than what the traffic can bear if inter-government agencies do not put in place robust cross border policies to checkmate the activities of traffickers