Colonial Legal Reasoning in the Post-Colonial African State: A Critique and a Defense of the Argument from African Metaphysical Epistemology

This article focuses on legal reasoning and legal epistemology within the African context. It examines the system of legal justice in post-colonial Africa and submits that because of the colonial legacy, post-colonial African legal reasoning is methodologically founded on empiricism and positivism. It avers that despite its merit of scientific objectivity, such legal reasoning is largely incapable of addressing offences committed through the manipulation of metaphysical realities or other forms of covert criminalities and wrongdoing. Consequently, the article proposes that the methodology of African metaphysical epistemology be adopted to complement the colonial methodology of legal reasoning in Africa, as it has the advantageous result of helping in the search for truth concerning such offences, thereby promoting the delivery of effective legal justice, and thus contributing significantly to the development of a balanced and reliable justice system in contemporary African societies. The methods of critical analysis, reflective argumentation and oral interview were adopted to pursue the goals of the study. KeywordsAfrica, Argument, Legal Epistemology, Legal Reasoning, Metaphysics

Analisis Pembebanan Ekonomis Pada Jaringan 500 KV Jawa Bali Menggunakan Software PowerWorld

Pada jaringan 500 kV Jawa Bali, PT. PLN (Persero) P3B menentukan kombinasi pembangkit yang akan beroperasi pada setiap level beban tertentu. Oleh karena itu, Economic Dispatch (ED) atau pembagian pembebanan secara ekonomis dilakukan untuk menghasilkan pembebanan pembangkit yang optimal. Namun, hasil dari Economic Dispatch tersebut belum tentu dapat memenuhi batasan sistem seperti batasan pembakitan generator dan batasan saluran. Untuk itu, Optimal Power Flow (OPF) perlu dilakukan dalam rangka pembagian pembebanan secara ekonomis, sekaligus memenuhi batasan-batasan sistem. Pada tugas akhir ini, perhitungan pembagian pembebanan pembangkit dilakukan dengan menggunakan software PowerWorld. Software ini memiliki keunggulan dalam teknik analisis, interaktif, dan disertai dengan grafik, sehingga mempermudah pembaca dalam memahami informasi yang diberikan. Dari hasil pengujian, terbukti bahwa pada keadaan normal ED dan OPF dalam penggunaan software PowerWorld, menghasilkan nilai yang sama yaitu sebesar 662.264,94 $/h. Tetapi pada saat terjadi pelanggaran batas saluran transmisi, hasil simulasi ED lebih murah yaitu sebesar 665.834,06$/h sedangkan hasil OPF sebesar 863.630,50 $/h

Therapeutic Efficacy of Cervical Traction in the Management of Cervical Radiculopathy: A Control Trial

Background: Severe pain and disability from cervical disorder is second to that of low back pain in musculoskeletal practice. Methods: Forty eight patients who met the inclusion criteria were placed into experimental (n=24) and control (n=24) group randomly. Participants in both groups received massage, cryotherapy and active exercises. Cervical traction was administered to experimental group for 15 minutes, thrice per week for four weeks while the other group served as control. Verbal rating scale (VRS) and Neck Disability Pain Index (NDI) were used as outcome measures. Data were analyzed using descriptive, dependent –t-test and independent-t-test. Results: There was a significant improvement in the pretreatment and post treatment pain intensity (t=10.75, p< 0.001) and neck functional disability (t=2.42, p=0.03) of participants in experimental group. There was a significant difference (t=-3.98, p=0.006) in the post treatment pain intensity between the cervical traction and control group. Conclusion: It could be concluded that application of continuous cervical traction can significantly reduce pain intensity of patients with cervical  radiculopathy.Key words: Cervical traction, cryotherapy, neck disability index, and verbal rating scale

Antiretroviral Therapy‑related Problems among Human Immunodeficiency Virus‑infected Patients: A Focus on Medication Adherence and Pill Burden

Background: There are problems associated with antiretroviral therapy despite its achievement. Poor medication adherence and inability to tolerate large pill burden are major problems facing patients with chronic illnesses. These drug therapy problems are under-studied among people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in Nigeria. We evaluated adherence and pill burden among this set of patients in a tertiary hospital in Lagos. Methods: Data for eligible HIV‑infected adults were documented from case notes and through interviews using a well‑structured  questionnaire. Important details extracted were sociodemographics, pills information, and CD4 counts. The main outcome measures were drug adherence, as assessed by the four‑item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale and pill burden, as measured by daily pill >5. Results: Of the 296 patients, 219 (74%) were females. Median age (interquartile range) was 40 (35.0–47.7) years. Majority (262; 88.5%) were married, had at least a secondary education (142:48.0%), and CD4 count >500 cells/ml (215; 72.6%). Pill burden >5 pills/day was observed in 12.2% of the patients, while adherence was documented for 83.4% of the patients. Majority (259; 87.5%) were receiving fixed‑dose  combination of antiretroviral drugs. Forgetfulness (16.5%) and being too busy to take pills (10.5%) were the most common reasons for nonadherence. Pill burden in those who were not receiving fixed‑dose combination was significantly associated with medication nonadherence. However, only pill burden was found to be an independent prognosticator of non-adherance. (Odd ratio = 0.67, confidenceinterval = 0.03–1.66, P < 0.00). Conclusion: Medication nonadherence and pill burden were observed in more than one‑tenth of patients. These were the two major  antiretroviral therapy‑related problems reported in this study. Keywords: Adherence, antiretroviral therapy, human immunodeficiency virus, people living with human immunodeficiency virus/acquiredimmunodeficiency syndrome, pill burde

Board characteristics and the amount of capital raised in the Malaysian IPO market

This study examines the impact of board characteristics on the amount of capital raised through an IPO for a sample of 220 Malaysian IPOs over the period of 2005–2015, applying both ordinary least squares (OLS) and quantile regression (QR) techniques. The OLS results show that board with ethnic Malay directors has a significant and positive association with the amount of capital raised, while a weak significance is found for board size. However, the QR results reveal that other than board ethnicity, other board characteristics namely board size, board independence and CEO duality are significantly associated with the amount of capital raised. The additional results suggest that QR provides a more insightful and full picture into the association than does OLS. The overall empirical evidence lends support to the resource dependence role of the board of directors at the time of an IPO

An estimate of the number of tropical tree species

The high species richness of tropical forests has long been recognized, yet there remains substantial uncertainty regarding the actual number of tropical tree species. Using a pantropical tree inventory database from closed canopy forests, consisting of 657,630 trees belonging to 11,371 species, we use a fitted value of Fisher’s alpha and an approximate pantropical stem total to estimate the minimum number of tropical forest tree species to fall between ∼40,000 and ∼53,000, i.e. at the high end of previous estimates. Contrary to common assumption, the Indo-Pacific region was found to be as species-rich as the Neotropics, with both regions having a minimum of ∼19,000–25,000 tree species. Continental Africa is relatively depauperate with a minimum of ∼4,500–6,000 tree species. Very few species are shared among the African, American, and the Indo-Pacific regions. We provide a methodological framework for estimating species richness in trees that may help refine species richness estimates of tree-dependent taxa

Injuries in male and female semi-professional football (soccer) players in Nigeria: prospective study of a National Tournament

BACKGROUND: Research on the epidemiology of football injuries in Africa is very sparse despite its importance for injury prevention planning in a continent with limited sports medicine resources. The vast majority of studies available in literature were conducted in Europe and only a very few studies have prospectively reported the pattern of football injury in Africa. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence and pattern of injuries in a cohort of male and female semi-professional football players in Nigeria. METHODS: A prospective cohort design was conducted, in which a total of 756 players with an age range of 18–32 years (356 males and 300 females) from 22 different teams (12 male and 10 female teams), were prospectively followed in a National Football Tournament. Physiotherapists recorded team exposure and injuries. Injuries were documented using the consensus protocol for data collection in studies relating to football injury surveillance. RESULTS: An overall incidence of 113.4 injuries/1000 h (95% CI 93.7–136.0) equivalent to 3.7 injuries/match and time-loss incidence of 15.6 injuries/1000 h were recorded for male players and 65.9 injuries/1000 h (95% CI 48.9–86.8) equivalent to 2.2 injuries/match and time-loss incidence of 7.9 injuries/1000 h were recorded for female players. Male players had a significantly higher risk of injuries [IRR = 1.72 (95% CI 1.23–2.45)]. Injuries mostly affected the lower extremity for both genders (n = 81, 70% and n = 31, 62% for males and females respectively). Lower leg contusion (n = 22, 19%) and knee sprain (n = 9, 18%) were the most common specific injury types for male and female players respectively. Most of the injuries were as a result of contact with another player (n = 102, 88%—males; n = 48, 96%—females). Time-loss injuries were mostly estimated as minimal (n = 11, 69%) for male players and severe (n = 4, 66%) for female players. CONCLUSION: The overall incidence of injuries among Nigerian semi-professional football players is high but most of the injuries do not result in time-loss. Pattern of injuries is mostly consistent with previous studies. More prospective studies are needed to establish injury prevention initiatives among African players

The global abundance of tree palms

Aim Palms are an iconic, diverse and often abundant component of tropical ecosystems that provide many ecosystem services. Being monocots, tree palms are evolutionarily, morphologically and physiologically distinct from other trees, and these differences have important consequences for ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration and storage) and in terms of responses to climate change. We quantified global patterns of tree palm relative abundance to help improve understanding of tropical forests and reduce uncertainty about these ecosystems under climate change. Location Tropical and subtropical moist forests. Time period Current. Major taxa studied Palms (Arecaceae). Methods We assembled a pantropical dataset of 2,548 forest plots (covering 1,191 ha) and quantified tree palm (i.e., ≥10 cm diameter at breast height) abundance relative to co‐occurring non‐palm trees. We compared the relative abundance of tree palms across biogeographical realms and tested for associations with palaeoclimate stability, current climate, edaphic conditions and metrics of forest structure. Results On average, the relative abundance of tree palms was more than five times larger between Neotropical locations and other biogeographical realms. Tree palms were absent in most locations outside the Neotropics but present in >80% of Neotropical locations. The relative abundance of tree palms was more strongly associated with local conditions (e.g., higher mean annual precipitation, lower soil fertility, shallower water table and lower plot mean wood density) than metrics of long‐term climate stability. Life‐form diversity also influenced the patterns; palm assemblages outside the Neotropics comprise many non‐tree (e.g., climbing) palms. Finally, we show that tree palms can influence estimates of above‐ground biomass, but the magnitude and direction of the effect require additional work. Conclusions Tree palms are not only quintessentially tropical, but they are also overwhelmingly Neotropical. Future work to understand the contributions of tree palms to biomass estimates and carbon cycling will be particularly crucial in Neotropical forests