Co-creating a Special Interest Tour: Enhancing the Experience and Strengthening Tour Group Ties through the Internet

This paper reports on a longitudinal study that examined the co-creation process of two special-interest tours. The virtual space provided by the tour company, with the facilitation of the tour leader, evolved a group of unconnected serious leisure participants into a small interactive community. Involving the participants within the construction of the tour product extended the duration of the experience, increased their emotional ownership of the product and developed an intimacy between them. These were the ingredients for two extraordinary tour experiences for those participants and have resulted in loyalty and compelling word of mouth recommendations for the tour company

Ethnic Politics and National Integration in Nigeria: An Impact Analysis

Since Nigeria s independence in 1960 Nigerian politics has been bedeviled by ethnic politics as a result of ethnic polarization and sentimental coloration of all national issues This problem has been one of the major factors inhibiting national integration and national development in Nigeria Nigerian politics is tainted with ethnic sentiments and politically induced disharmony Ethnic politics has been one of the factors responsible for low productivity and the general poor socio - economic development in Nigeria The major focus of this study is to examine the challenges of ethnic politics in Nigeria as it relates to national integration with a view to critically evaluating the impact Secondary data was used to gather relevant information for this study One finding of the study is that ethnic politics was deliberately introduced and propagated in the Nigerian political system by the British colonial government through its divisive divide and rule policy to actualize colonial and imperialist economic and political objectives The situation has not abated in spite of several attempts to redress it through state creation and the Federal character principl

Rethinking Prebendialism in Nigeria’s Socio-Political Process: The Implication for Democratisation of South-South Region

This study examines Godfathers impacts in the Nigerian socio-political process and the implication on the nascent democracy in the South-South Region The design was exploratory and the study was descriptive combining secondary data from books and the internet The study uncovered that godfathers were patron-occupying state offices as pre-bends They became the gate-keeper determines the development initiative to be followed and employed benefactors of privileges This study s findings also indicated that the state s character and the natures of politics in Nigeria had impacted negative values which now threatens the very foundation of the country s blossoming democracy leading to unhealthy rivalry and competition among godfathers to have control over state powers using their favoured political godsons and denies the electorates of their right to elect a generally acceptable candidate This act renders no free and fair elections Also the struggle for control of state powers has resulted in electoral violence in Nigeria either before or during or after election

Participatory Budgeting in Nigerian Local Government Administration: A Panacea for Rural Development in Nigeria

Government annual budget is a public proclamation of its projected and actual expenditures which provide vital evidence of where a State sets its priorities Therefore this article seeks to show how the participatory budgeting offers citizens a large opportunity to learn about government operations and to deliberate debate and influence the allocation of public resources in the local government councils Through a descriptive historical analysis this study shows that the local government s current budget processes reveal that citizens have no understanding of what the local government council is committing itself to in its policy declarations and what it actually does in its budgetary allocations The extremely complicated technical and esoteric nature of the budget-making process and documents does not allow citizens to participate to have any say in it or to monitor the process it is the position of this paper that participatory budgeting programs are implemented at the behest of governments citizens nongovernmental organizations NGOs and civil society organizations CSOs to allow citizens to play a direct role in deciding how and where resources should be spent It is a tool for educating engaging and empowering citizens and strengthening demand for good governance It also enhanced transparency and accountability More so the study revealed that participatory budgeting helps reduce government inefficiency and curb clientelism patronage and corruption Besides recommending encouragement of citizen s participation in budgeting community-based organizations the civil society and the media should be involved and be stimulated to play the role of a conscience keeper on behalf of the poor and marginalized in the societ

Out of the Shadows: A Young Woman\u27s Journey from Hiding to Celebrating her Identity

In April 2019 the UK government reported that little progress had been made to remedy social outcomes inequality between Roma and the wider population, recommending further recognition of Roma, for example in census data, to enable identification of Roma, their needs, and how to meet those needs. In this article we present an account of one Roma woman’s journey from hiding her identity to celebrating it. We expose five critical incidents that challenge and mould her sense of identity and career aspiration, with insights into her hopes and dreams as she reflects upon the barriers she faces and attempts to overcome. The narrative enhances understanding of the intersection of experience and ethnic identity formation, Marcella’s (pseudonym) case study emerges verbatim through quotes; we do not alter or correct her English. In our exploration, we follow the six classical steps recommended in case study analysis (Yin, 2009) and ground some of the key analytical concepts in Goffman’s theories of stigma (1963) and theatrical performances in everyday life. We conclude by identifying key parallels in her experience, relevant regardless of socioeconomic status to further debate on the nature of internalised shame, stigma, and class

MAPPING OUT THE RESPONSE SEQUENCE OF THE SPRINT START

Establishing the limits of sprint start response time (SSRT) requires the mapping of the muscular sequence of activation and mechanical response delays and was the aim of the current study. Sprint start performance of 15 sprinters was examined with kinematic, EMG, and block force data collected. A general muscle activation sequence was identified, with both deltoid muscles, the rear leg rectus femoris, and the rear leg tibialis anterior the first muscles to increase activation from the set position. With ankle dorsiflexion the initial motion during the block push, examining the period between tibialis anterior muscle onset and block force onset is critical for quantifying mechanical response delays . Estimates of this delay period were as low as 7 ms which has implications for our understanding of the minimum SSRT a sprinter can legally produce

CHALLENGES AND EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON CONSTRUCTION SITES TOWARDS EFFECTIVE SITE MANAGEMENT SKILLS IN ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA

The major purpose of this study is to determine the effects of climate change on construction site, the challenges to overcome, and the effective skills needed to overcome the challenges. The design of the study is descriptive survey. The populations for the study are civil engineers, Structural engineers, Professional and nonprofessional experienced builders (the Sites managers and lecturers). The population were grouped into two groups; i. the civil engineers, Structural engineers and professional builders. and nonprofessional site Managers. ii, lecturers in building related trades such as  architecture, structural engineers builders and quantity surveyors formed the second group. The total number of the population is 135. 135 questionnaires were distributed and collect back immediately after responded to, representing hundred percent. Two Lecturers from Adamawa State Polytechnic and two experience site managers validated the instrument. The data collected was analyzed using Mean, Standard deviation.  The finding of the study revealed that climate change post challenges to the site managers, affects site management activities such as focusing, designs implementation and schedules of material supply there for affect the cost, time and the quality of the final product (building)

The Economic Impact of the Covid-19 Epidemic on Nigeria Economy

Many studies on the impact of COVID-19 are often discussed in developed countries stressing a gap in understanding how the pandemic impacts developing countries This study focuses on the coronavirus called COVID-19 situation in Nigeria and its economic impact on the economy The study also examines the structural causes that worsen the COVID-19 crisis in Nigeria Our findings reveal that the economic downturn in Nigeria was triggered2 by a combination of declining oil prices and spillovers from the COVID-19 outbreak which led to a fall in demand for oil products and social distancing economic activities halted from taking place The government retort to the crisis was to provide financial assistance to businesses and a few households affected by the coronavirus outburst The Federal Government of Nigeria approved accommodative economic strategies by offering a targeted 3 5trillion loan as support to some sectors of the economy However these efforts did not prevent the economic crisis from occurring as expected The Managers of the economy and agents could not freely engage in economic activities to fear contacting the COVID-19 disease that was spreading fast at the tim

Execution of the SimSET Monte Carlo PET/SPECT Simulator in the Condor Distributed Computing Environment

SimSET is a package for simulation of emission tomography data sets. Condor is a popular distributed computing environment. Simple C/C++ applications and shell scripts are presented which allow the execution of SimSET on the Condor environment. This is accomplished without any modification to SimSET by executing multiple instances and using its combinebin utility. This enables research facilities without dedicated parallel computing systems to utilize the idle cycles of desktop workstations to greatly reduce the run times of their SimSET simulations. The necessary steps to implement this approach in other environments are presented along with sample results