Dispersed air flotation of fine particles

Imperial Users onl

Optimizing E-Learning in Nigerian Universities for Sustainable Development

A dialectical nexus exists between education and development. With Nigeria’s paradoxical ashamedly poverty and underdevelopment profile amidst abundant potential wealth, effective educational service delivery especially at the higher education level which is critical to human and national development is imperative. Thus, education in the 21st century global knowledge economy requires a paradigm shift in the delivery system to match the emergent new knowledge, attitudes, skills and technologies. Since curriculum is a vehicle for attainment of educational goals and methods of delivery are a component of the curriculum, there is need for employment of effective delivery systems which will produce functional citizens locally relevant and globally competent. E-learning which means electronic learning is an ICTs – driven new face of education service delivery superior to the traditional brick wall classroom learning. But there are challenges and gaps for an effective e-learning in the universities. This paper, therefore, using a library research method, attempts to demystify all this and articulates twelve nuggets strategies to optimize e-learning in Nigerian universities for Nigeria’s sustainable development and global competitiveness

Leadership and Religious Violence in Africa: Insight from Nigeria and Implications for Sustainable Development

The paper interrogates leadership and religious violence in Africa with insights from Nigeria and implications for sustainable development. Religious violence has done untold violence to Nigeria’s human, physical, political, fiscal, social and natural capital needed for sustainable development. It has also caused vulnerabilities, climate of fear and insecurity, capital flight, disinvestment and underdevelopment. Adopting a library research, critical review method, the paper establishes a nexus between leadership and religious violence in Nigeria and locates the genesis of religious violence in Nigeria to the rulership of the British colonial masters exacerbated by post independence poor leadership and bad governance. The paper, in the main, recommends evolutionary strategies such as effective leadership and good governance, religious education, western education, ethical reorientation, poverty eradication and Sovereign National Conference (SNC), interface of Christianity, Islam and Africa Traditional Religion (ATR) peace building and creation of Ministry of Northern Affairs. Keywords: Ethno-religious, violence, Christianity, Islam, Religion, Boko-Hara

Scientific conferences, socialization, and the Covid-19 pandemic:a conceptual and empirical enquiry

Since the 1970s social analysts have seen communication between scientists not solely as information exchange (the algorithmical model), but as a process of socialization into overlapping and mutually embedded scientific domains (the enculturational model). Under the algorithmical model, the impact of the Covid-19 shutdown on travel would be easily remedied by replacing face-to-face communication with online platforms. Conferences and similar gatherings are costly, elitist, and environmentally damaging, but under the enculturational model abandoning them could be disastrous for science, which depends on the development of cross-national trust and mutual agreements through face-to-face interaction and, in turn, disastrous for science’s role in democracy. We explore the problem theoretically and empirically, arguing against recent proposals from some scientists for the wholesale and permanent replacement of conferences with remote communication

Education and Development Disconnect in Nigeria: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as the 21st Century Imperative for Nigeria’s National Transformation, Sustainable Development and Global Competitiveness

The paper examines Education and Development Disconnect in Nigeria and makes a case for education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as the critical path to Nigeria’s sustainable development and global competitiveness. The paper submits that education is the pivot of national transformation and development, but Nigeria’s dysfunctional educational system perpetuates and deepens poverty and underdevelopment and consequently, the resource-rich Nigeria is ashamedly described as a low human development country and as a country with blunted edges in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Reports and the World Economic Forum Africa and Global Competitiveness Reports, respectively. Relying on secondary data, the paper argues that a human-rights-approach-to-education, investment in quality education, environmental education, research and innovation, achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs) and science and technology are prerequisites for Nigeria’s sustainable development and global competitiveness. Essentially, that Nigeria’s educational system, policies and practices should be reoriented towards sustainable development, which is a tripod of interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars of economic growth, human development and environmental conservation, in an equitable and sustainable manner, for present and future generations. The paper submits that all curricula and taxonomies of education, including environmental education are subsumable under ESD which equips individuals and societies with the knowledge, values and skills to live and work in an equitable secure and sustainable manner and balances economic well-being and human development with cultural tradition and respect for and protection of earth’s natural resources and environment. To achieve this, the paper among other recommendations, posits a Virtuous Cycle of Education for Sustainable Development (VCESD) Model for Nigeria’s national transformation, sustainable development and global competitiveness.  Keywords:Education, Development, Sustainable Development, Education for Sustainable Development,   Global Competitivenes

Process dependent Sivers function and implications for single spin asymmetry in inclusive hadron production

We study the single transverse spin asymmetries in the single inclusive particle production within the framework of the generalized parton model (GPM). By carefully analyzing the initial- and final-state interactions, we include the process-dependence of the Sivers functions into the GPM formalism. The modified GPM formalism has a close connection with the collinear twist-3 approach. Within the new formalism, we make predictions for inclusive $\pi^0$ and direct photon productions at RHIC energies. We find the predictions are opposite to those in the conventional GPM approach.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, extended discussion on connection with twist three approach, references adde

Methods and systems for identifying a particle using dielectrophoresis

A system for identifying a particle. The system includes a microfluidic device; a microelectrode array including a plurality of electrodes, the microelectrode array disposed within the microfluidic device; a plurality of particles suspended in a solution and delivered to the microelectrode array using the microfluidic device; a signal generator operatively coupled to the microelectrode array; a particle detector adjacent to the microelectrode array; and a controller in operative communication with the signal generator and the particle detector. The controller is configured to apply an oscillating voltage signal to the microelectrode array between a low frequency and a high frequency at a sweep rate, wherein the sweep rate is no more than a maximum sweep rate, and determine a distribution of the plurality of particles relative to the microelectrode array at a plurality of frequency levels between the low frequency and the high frequency.https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/patents/1139/thumbnail.jp

Novel Transversity Properties in Semi-Inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering

The $T$-odd distribution functions contributing to transversity properties of the nucleon and their role in fueling nontrivial contributions to azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering are investigated. We use a dynamical model to evaluate these quantities in terms of HERMES kinematics.Comment: 5 pages revtex; 5 eps figures. References added. To appear as a Rapid Communication in Physical Review

Final state interactions and the transverse structure of the pion using non-perturbative eikonal methods

In the factorized picture of semi-inclusive hadronic processes the naive time reversal-odd parton distributions exist by virtue of the gauge link which renders it color gauge invariant. The link characterizes the dynamical effect of initial/final-state interactions of the active parton due soft gluon exchanges with the target remnant. Though these interactions are non-perturbative, studies of final-state interaction have been approximated by perturbative one-gluon approximation in Abelian models. We include higher-order contributions by applying non-perturbative eikonal methods incorporating color degrees of freedom in a calculation of the Boer-Mulders function of the pion. Using this framework we explore under what conditions the Boer Mulders function can be described in terms of factorization of final state interactions and a spatial distribution in impact parameter space.Comment: To appear in Phys.Lett.B, 9 pages, 5 figures, added refs. and discussio

Oxidative stress at low levels can induce clustered DNA lesions leading to NHEJ mediated mutations

DNA damage and mutations induced by oxidative stress are associated with various different human pathologies including cancer. The facts that most human tumors are characterized by large genome rearrangements and glutathione depletion in mice results in deletions in DNA suggest that reactive oxygen species (ROS) may cause gene and chromosome mutations through DNA double strand breaks (DSBs). However, the generation of DSBs at low levels of ROS is still controversial. In the present study, we show that H2O2 at biologically-relevant levels causes a marked increase in oxidative clustered DNA lesions (OCDLs) with a significant elevation of replication-independent DSBs. Although it is frequently reported that OCDLs are fingerprint of high-energy IR, our results indicate for the first time that H2O2, even at low levels, can also cause OCDLs leading to DSBs specifically in G1 cells. Furthermore, a reverse genetic approach revealed a significant contribution of the non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) pathway in H2O2-induced DNA repair & mutagenesis. This genomic instability induced by low levels of ROS may be involved in spontaneous mutagenesis and the etiology of a wide variety of human diseases like chronic inflammation-related disorders, carcinogenesis, neuro-degeneration and aging