Management Technology Education and the Challenges Of Millennium Development Goals in Nigeria

Increasingly nowadays ‘good governance’ is viewed as a keystone in the architecture of effective leadership and “the exercise of political power to manage a nation’s affair. It encompasses the state’s institutional and structural arrangements in decision-making processes and implementation.  The concept has moved to the fore and the aim is to convince decision-makers about the merits of effective management and transparency, and of the need to have effective managers to manage the available resources. However, absences of such have resulted to the persistent crisis of governance such as corruption, mismanagement and have blocked development. This ugly situation has left good governance and accountability as just a mere concept. As a result today, Nigeria is characterized by problems of poverty, disease, ignorance, and above all lack of good managers. Consequently, Poverty, hunger, hunger, diseases, ignorance has moved to the forefront of global concern. Particular importance is the commitment of the United Nations to reduce developing countries’ such as Nigeria level of  poverty as now reflected in the objectives of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) consisted of 189 membership states. Keywords: Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Managers/Management Education

Public Policy Formulation and Implementation in Nigeria

The papers examine and analyze the importance, problems and factors influencing public policy formulation and implementation. It dwelt further on the policy reforms and determinant of policy issues and features as a guide to effective public policy formulation and implementation in Nigeria. The study equally revealed that there is lack of full practice of federalism in Nigeria as enshrined in the 1999 constitution rather what is obtained now is synonymous to unitary system of government. Consequent upon that, in spite of the importance of public policy formulation and implementation as a critical factor in the management of government affairs in Nigeria, yet there are no standard formats or generally accepted guidelines towards such. It is against this background, that the bureaucrats has a way of constituting obstacles or frustration in the way of policies formulated by the political officials, especially those policies on which they hold divergent opinions or are not of direct benefit to them. A synonym for this sense is the bureaucratic decision making process. As a result of this since independent, the country has been facing challenges of managing her resources due to the different styles of governance in the implementing of various aspects of government public policies, programmes and actions. The study recommends among other things the need for government to be very proactive, sensitive in formulating and implementation of public policy decisions that has direct impact on its citizenry. Keywords: Public Policy, Policy reform, policy implementatio

The nanoscale structure and stability of organic photovoltaic blends processed with solvent additives

Controlling the nanomorphology in bulk heterojunction photoactive blends is crucial for optimizing the performance and stability of organic photovoltaic (OPV) technologies. A promising approach is to alter the drying dynamics and consequently, the nanostructure of the blend film using solvent additives such as 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO). Although this approach is demonstrated extensively for OPV systems incorporating fullerene-based acceptors, it is unclear how solvent additive processing influences the morphology and stability of nonfullerene acceptor (NFA) systems. Here, small angle neutron scattering (SANS) is used to probe the nanomorphology of two model OPV systems processed with DIO: a fullerene-based system (PBDB-T:PC71BM) and an NFA-based system (PBDB-T:ITIC). To overcome the low intrinsic neutron scattering length density contrast in polymer:NFA blend films, the synthesis of a deuterated NFA analog (ITIC-d52) is reported. Using SANS, new insights into the nanoscale evolution of fullerene and NFA-based systems are provided by characterizing films immediately after fabrication, after thermal annealing, and after aging for 1 year. It is found that DIO processing influences fullerene and NFA-based systems differently with NFA-based systems characterized by more phase-separated domains. After long-term aging, SANS reveals both systems demonstrate some level of thermodynamic induced domain coarsening

Echinoderms from the Museum of Zoology from the Universidad de Costa Rica

El Museo de Zoología de la Universidad de Costa Rica (MZUCR) se funda en 1966 y alberga la colección de organismos vertebrados e invertebrados más completa de Costa Rica. El MZUCR cuenta actualmente con 24 colec-ciones que contienen más de cinco millones de especíme-nes, y más de 13 000 especies identificadas. Las primeras colecciones datan 1960 e incluyen peces, reptiles, anfibios, poliquetos, crustáceos y equinodermos. Para este último grupo, el MZUCR posee un total de 157 especies, en 1 173 lotes y 4 316 ejemplares. Estas 157 especies representan el 54% del total de especies de equinodermos que posee Costa Rica (293 especies). El resto de especies están repar-tidas en las siguientes instituciones: Academia de la Cien-cias de California (CAS) (4.8%), Instituto Oceanográfico Scripps (SIO) (5.2%), en la Colección Nacional de equino-dermos “Dra. Ma. Elena Caso” de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (ICML-UNAM) (12.7%), Museo de Zoología Comparada de Harvard (MZC) (19.2%), y en el Museo Nacional de Historia Natural del Instituto Smithso-niano (USNM) (35.1%). Es posible que haya material de Costa Rica en el Museo de Historia Natural de Dinamarca (NCD) y en el Museo de Historia Natural de los Ángeles (LACM), sin embargo, no hubo acceso a dichas coleccio-nes. A su vez hay 9.6% de especies que no aparecen en ningún museo, pero están reportadas en la literatura. Con base en esta revisión de colecciones se actualizó el listado taxonómico de equinodermos para Costa Rica que consta de 293 especies, 152 géneros, 75 familias, 30 órdenes y cinco clases. La costa Pacífica de Costa Rica posee 153 especies, seguida por la isla del Coco con 134 y la costa Caribe con 65. Holothuria resultó ser el género más rico con 25 especies.The Museum of Zoology, Universidad de Costa Rica (MZUCR) was founded in 1966 and houses the most complete collection of vertebrates and invertebrates in Costa Rica. The MZUCR currently has 24 collections containing more than five million specimens, and more than 13 000 species. The earliest collections date back to 1960 and include fishes, reptiles, amphibians, polychaetes, crustaceans and echinoderms. For the latter group, the MZUCR has a total of 157 species, in 1 173 lots and 4 316 specimens. These 157 species represent 54% of the total species of echino-derms from Costa Rica. The remaining species are distributed in the following institutions: California Academy of Sciences (CAS) (4.8%), Scripps Oceanographic Institute (SIO) (5.2%), National Echinoderm Collection “Dr. Ma. Elena Caso” from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (ICML-UNAM) (12.7%), the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institute (USNM) (35.1%), and the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (19.2%). There may be material from Costa Rica in the Natural History Museum of Denmark (NCD) and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles (LACM), however, there was no access to such collections. There are 9.6% that do not appear in museums, but are reported in the literature. Based on this revision, the taxonomic list of echinoderms for Costa Rica is updated to 293 species, 152 genera, 75 families, 30 orders and 5 classes. The Pacific coast of Costa Rica has 153 species, followed by the Isla del Coco with 134 and the Caribbean coast with 65. Holothuria is the most diverse genus with 25 species.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Básicas::Facultad de Ciencias::Escuela de BiologíaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Básicas::Centro de Investigación en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología (CIMAR)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Artes y Letras::Museo de la Universidad de Costa Ric

Self or other: Directors’ attitudes towards policy initiatives for external board evaluation

Recurrent crises in corporate governance have board practice and created policy pressure to assess the effectiveness of boards. Since the 1990s boards have faced calls to undertake regular, formal evaluation. Since 2010, the UK Corporate Governance Code has urged large corporations to engage outside parties to conduct them at least every three years, a move that other jurisdictions have copied. Despite this policy importance, little research has been conducted into processes or outcomes of board evaluation. This study explores the attitudes of directors on evaluation, whether self-administered or facilitated by others. We find acceptance of the principle but reservations about the value and even honesty in questionnaire-based approaches. We find scepticism about, but also acknowledgement of, the benefits of using outside facilitators, especially for their objectivity and because their interviewing elicits insights into board dynamics. As this practice expands beyond listed companies to non-listed ones, charities, and even governance branches of government, our findings point to a need to professionalise outside facilitation

Electrical characterization of pn-junctions of PPV and silicon

Poly(phenylene vinylene) (PPV) grown via the precursor route, deposited on top of heavily doped n-type silicon, was studied using electrical measurement techniques. The results are compared to PPV grown via deposition of soluble derivative (MEH-PPV). The two types are very similar. They have comparable free carrier densities and both show minority-carrier effects. The activation energy found via the loss tangent is 0.13 eV. The effect of exposure to oxygen is visible in the capacitance and the current

Triplet-State and Singlet Oxygen Formation in Fluorene-Based Alternating Copolymers

Data are reported on the triplet states of a series of fluorene-based A-alt-B type alternating copolymers based on pulse radiolysis-energy transfer and flash photolysis experiments. From the pulse radiolysis experiments, spectra are given for eight copolymers involving phenylene, thiophene, benzothiadiazole, and oligothienylenevinylene groups. Quantum yields for triplet-state formation (ΦT) have been obtained by flash photolysis following laser excitation and in one case by photoacoustic calorimetry. In addition, yields of sensitized formation of singlet oxygen have been determined by time-resolved phosphorescence and are, in general, in excellent agreement with the ΦT values. In all cases, the presence of thiophene units is seen to increase intersystem-crossing quantum yields, probably because of the presence of the heavy sulfur atom. However, with the poly[2,7-(9,9-bis(2‘-ethylhexyl)fluorene)-alt-1,4-phenylene] (PFP), thiophene S,S-dioxide (PFTSO2) and benzothiadiazole (F8BT) copolymers, low yields of triplet formation are observed. With three of the copolymers, the energies of the triplet states have been determined. With PFP, the triplet energy is virtually identical to that of poly[2,7-(9,9-bis(2‘-ethylhexyl)fluorene)]. In contrast, with fluorene−thiophene copolymers PFaT and PF3T, the triplet energies are closer to those of thiophene oligomers, indicating that there is significant conjugation between fluorene and thiophene units but also that there is a more localized triplet state than with the homopolymers