Martin Luther King Jr’s Theory of Nonviolence in Conflict Resolution

This article on Martin Luther King Jr examines the power of non-violence philosophy in conflict resolution. Before Luther King Jr philosophy of non-violence, Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy and other advocates of peace had vigorously pursued non-violence as the only tenable and acceptable paradigm in conflict resolution. In this essay, Martin Luther King Jr. is shown to be deeply influenced by his moral and spiritual background upon which his father had endowed upon him. For Luther King Jr, the racial discrimination experienced in Montgomery can only be defeated by non-violence and nothing more, for violence begets violence upon which continuous use of violence leads to the vicious circle of violence. The essay concludes that human beings ought to use non-violence in conflict resolution especially in the face of dehumanization and racial discriminatio

Mycobacterium ulcerans disease in the middle belt of Ghana: An eight-year review from six endemic districts

AbstractBackgroundMycobacterium ulcerans (MU) produces mycolactone toxin when infected with a plasmid. Toxin is cytotoxic and immunosuppressive, causing extensive destruction of tissues, leading to large ulcers on exposed parts of the body. Spontaneous healing by secondary intention leads to contractures, subluxation of joints, disuse atrophy, distal lymphedema and other complications. The disease is endemic in some communities within the middle belt of Ghana.ObjectiveTo document the clinical and epidemiological features of MU disease in the middle belt of Ghana and the outcome of treatment.Patients and methodsPatients with lesions suspected to MU disease were screened by community workers. Lesions were confirmed by any of the following: direct smear examination, culture, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), or histopathology.Patients were treated with rifampicin (10mg/kg orally) and streptomycin (15mg/kg IM) combination for eight weeks. Patients selected for surgical treatment included cases where medical treatment had failed, cases where medical treatment is contraindicated, cases presenting late with complications and recurrent cases.Results258 patients were seen in the Ahafo Ano, Amansie Central, Amansie West, Asunafo, Asutifi, and Upper Denkyira districts of Ghana between 2005 and 2012. Their ages ranged from 1year 3months to 98years, with a mean age of 29.8 (SD 20.4).The clinical forms of MU disease seen were: papule (0.5%), nodule (1.5%), chronic osteomyelitis (1.5%), contracture (1.5%), edematous lesion (3%), and ulcer (92%). Uncommon complications include subluxation of knee joint, salivary gland fistula and Marjolin’s ulcer.The lesions were distributed as follows: head and neck (6.8%), upper limb (20.3%), trunk (1.7%), and lower limb (71.2%).ConclusionMU disease in the middle belt of Ghana can be controlled by early case detection and adequate curative treatment

The Patterns of Acquisition of Syntactic Regularities in Pre-Secondary School Second Language Learners of English

The learning of complex syntactic structures of English by L2 learners have not been systematically dealt with in the available literature. This study investigated this problem, with the aim of replicating some works done in the L1, in order to determine their feasibility in the L2 perspective. Limited to a small sample, the study examined the developmental stages in the acquisition of English syntactic structures in 7 to 10-year-old children learning English as a second language. Six test constructs were used to examine linguistic competence over a wide range of surface structures, and statistical analysis provided the basis for interpretation of the general pattern of acquisition. The findings of the study show that the process of acquisition of syntactic structures continues actively during and after the primary school years among L2 learners, and they have implication not only for syntactic acquisition, but for language theory in general and L2 theory in particular

Fast Disparity Estimation from a Single Compressed Light Field Measurement

The abundant spatial and angular information from light fields has allowed the development of multiple disparity estimation approaches. However, the acquisition of light fields requires high storage and processing cost, limiting the use of this technology in practical applications. To overcome these drawbacks, the compressive sensing (CS) theory has allowed the development of optical architectures to acquire a single coded light field measurement. This measurement is decoded using an optimization algorithm or deep neural network that requires high computational costs. The traditional approach for disparity estimation from compressed light fields requires first recovering the entire light field and then a post-processing step, thus requiring long times. In contrast, this work proposes a fast disparity estimation from a single compressed measurement by omitting the recovery step required in traditional approaches. Specifically, we propose to jointly optimize an optical architecture for acquiring a single coded light field snapshot and a convolutional neural network (CNN) for estimating the disparity maps. Experimentally, the proposed method estimates disparity maps comparable with those obtained from light fields reconstructed using deep learning approaches. Furthermore, the proposed method is 20 times faster in training and inference than the best method that estimates the disparity from reconstructed light fields

A Research-Based Evidence of the Effect of Graphic Organizers on the Understanding of Prose Fiction in ESL Classroom

Graphic organizers (GOs) are fast becoming acceptable standard instructional tools across subjects in the education arena globally. However, this visual representation of information is yet to be recognized and integrated into the teaching methods in Nigerian schools. This study, therefore, presents a research-based investigation of the usefulness of GOs in the appreciation of prose literature in Nigeria, with a view to foregrounding their use in Nigerian schools. Specifically, the study seeks to find out whether senior secondary students in prose literature-in-English in Nigeria who are taught with GOs perform better in prose and comprehension assessments. Four project secondary schools with total of 100 students were purposively selected for the study. The schools were grouped into two: graphic-based schools (GBS) and non-graphic-based schools (NGBS). Whereas the GBS was exposed to instruction via eight graphic organizers, the NGBS served as control. Subjected to descriptive statistics and one-sample t test analysis, the investigation reveals that graphic organizers make students take charge of the learning process in prose literature classes, and it concludes that these visual instructional elements guarantee student understanding and achievement. The study, thus, recommends the incorporation of graphic organizers in the teaching and learning processes across subjects in Nigerian school

Two-Player Boundedness Counter Games

We consider two-player zero-sum games with winning objectives beyond regular languages, expressed as a parity condition in conjunction with a Boolean combination of boundedness conditions on a finite set of counters which can be incremented, reset to 0, but not tested. A boundedness condition requires that a given counter is bounded along the play. Such games are decidable, though with non-optimal complexity, by an encoding into the logic WMSO with the unbounded and path quantifiers, which is known to be decidable over infinite trees. Our objective is to give tight or tighter complexity results for particular classes of counter games with boundedness conditions, and study their strategy complexity. In particular, counter games with conjunction of boundedness conditions are easily seen to be equivalent to Streett games, so, they are CoNP-c. Moreover, finite-memory strategies suffice for Eve and memoryless strategies suffice for Adam. For counter games with a disjunction of boundedness conditions, we prove that they are in solvable in NP?CoNP, and in PTime if the parity condition is fixed. In that case memoryless strategies suffice for Eve while infinite memory strategies might be necessary for Adam. Finally, we consider an extension of those games with a max operation. In that case, the complexity increases: for conjunctions of boundedness conditions, counter games are EXPTIME-c

The relationship between export performance and global economic performance

As trade between nations has progressed, some countries have focussed their economic policies on increasing exports. In many cases, these exports have been the most significant driver behind the economic success of these nations and the resultant improvement in the welfare of their citizens. This research is needed in order to understand the extent that a country is dependent on the economic output of its trading partners to drive its export performance. This is of particular interest in the context of the current economic issues being experienced in some of the major markets of the world. The research evaluates the statistical relationship between world GDP and export performance, adjusting for different time periods and different industries. A Granger causality test was also applied in an effort to avoid the shortfalls of simple longitudinal regression tests. The sample included data from 1948 to 2010, across 11 industries in 20 countries.The research found a strong relationship between world GDP and export performance, although the results of the Granger test show that this is not a causal relationship. The diversity and complexity of a country’s industrial structure emerged as a significant theme in the research and was integrated into a model (Figure 5) that can be used by policy makers to assess their own export position according to these variables. The results of this research can assist policy makers in understanding the vulnerabilities of their export performance to global economic cycles as well as in prioritising and evaluating industrial sector development. The research highlights how, in spite of the challenges that may be experienced with regards to global economic performance, there is still a great deal of scope for policy makers to influence their own futures when it comes to export performance.Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012.Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)unrestricte

The Effect of Marketing Mix Strategies on Media Customers’ Satisfaction : Case Study of Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation.

The study was conducted at Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) Dar es Salaam with the main objective of investigating the effects of marketing mix strategies on customer satisfaction at TBC. The specific objectives include establishing the level of marketing mix strategies, to determine the level of customer satisfaction and to establish the relationship between marketing mix strategies and customer satisfaction at TBC. The study involved both qualitative and quantitative approaches in data collection and analysis. The population of the study was all customers utilizing TBC services. The study employed a representative sample of 84 individuals, where random and purposive sampling technique was used to identify individuals to be interviewed. Data was collected using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The semi-structured questionnaire, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and documentary review were the key methods used to collect data. Quantitative data processing and analysis were done using the SPSS computer program. Qualitative data analysis was done using qualitative methods. Product, pricing, placement, promotional, people, process, and physical evidence strategies were assessed to establish facts about the effects of marketing mix strategies on customers’ satisfaction in the study area. The general findings of the study indicated that there is a great relationship between customer satisfaction and marketing mix strategies with a high correlation coefficient of .721** level in a 2-tailed test with a significance level at 0.01. The study concluded that marketing mix strategies have significant positive effects on customer satisfaction in the selected media industries in Tanzania. Therefore, the study recommended TBC to maintain its competitive advantage through focused to reach customers using discounted prices and increase new products to attract the middle and low-income customers; It was also recommended to employ the blended marketing mix factors of product, place, process, promotion, physical evidence and people to focus continuously improved and increase customer satisfaction at TBC; There are need to continually improve all marketing mix strategies for variables which are significant perform low. This involves equip TBC workers with skills, knowledge and experience as well as improving their working environments to meet the needs of customers satisfaction; Furthermore, it was recommended to combine marketing mix strategies towards improving customer’s satisfaction by giving all of our customers considerable free branding opportunity offers on our online platforms to encourage more purchase of its products