Influence of Institutional Environment and the Development of Social Enterprises in Nigeria

The concepts and models of social enterprise worldwide are increasingly attracting academic interests. The different typologies of explaining social enterprise are often attributed to the contextual development of the phenomenon. The organisational orientation towards resolution of social problems that are locally embedded in different environment necessitates empirical and contextual insights. While current research appears to focus on the influence of institutional (economic, legal, cultural, social) differences on social enterprises in some developed and emerging environments, there is lack of understanding of how the institutional factors, challenges, motivators and barriers influence empirical elucidations of social enterprises in developing countries. This study draws on neo-institutional standpoint to advance the understanding of how institutional arrangements (regulations, public policies, laws, socio-cultural understandings and processes) influence the conception and development of social enterprise in Nigeria. It is posited that Nigerian context presents an environment with weak formal institutional arrangements supporting social enterprises. his study adopted a qualitative research method to explore the influences of the institutional environmental factors on the development of social enterprises in Nigeria. The study sample included 31 social enterprises. Thirty-one interviews were conducted with Social Entrepreneurs in addition to two interviews with Regulatory Agency Executives in Nigeria. The study findings reveal that culture and religion plays an important role for the nature and character of social enterprises, while noting the key role military rule played in creating institutional apathy.Interestingly, the role of the nascent democracy and personal experiences (affliction and knowledge) of social entrepreneurs were key motivators engendering social consciousness and advocacy for civic reorientation and positive goals that create social and economic benefit to society. The absence of a coherent institutional delineation, structure, support, knowledge and regulatory framework for social enterprise are key findings emanating. Moreover, it is found that with increasing awareness of dwindling grant funding and need for multiple bottom line organisational goal, social enterprise are developing their commercial dimension, which is key to their sustainability. Still, results reinforce the primacy of social dimension to the conception which were focused on providing social and economic inclusion within the Nigerian environment. This study provides empirical insights that can help frame future research directions and provide a comparison across environments or done in another developing context. Within the understudied context, further research should focus on how social dimension/values are superseded by the needed to develop income generating component (economic dimension/values)and the tensions between both logics. Finally, an in-depth study of the legal frameworks in which social enterprises operate within the environment and its influence on the practice of the conception will strengthen understanding and ensure a more coherent mapping of the field of study

Flux Expulsion - Field Evolution in Neutron Stars

Models for the evolution of magnetic fields of neutron stars are constructed, assuming the field is embedded in the proton superconducting core of the star. The rate of expulsion of the magnetic flux out of the core, or equivalently the velocity of outward motion of flux-carrying proton-vortices is determined from a solution of the Magnus equation of motion for these vortices. A force due to the pinning interaction between the proton-vortices and the neutron-superfluid vortices is also taken into account in addition to the other more conventional forces acting on the proton-vortices. Alternative models for the field evolution are considered based on the different possibilities discussed for the effective values of the various forces. The coupled spin and magnetic evolution of single pulsars as well as those processed in low-mass binary systems are computed, for each of the models. The predicted lifetimes of active pulsars, field strengths of the very old neutron stars, and distribution of the magnetic fields versus orbital periods in low-mass binary pulsars are used to test the adopted field decay models. Contrary to the earlier claims, the buoyancy is argued to be the dominant driving cause of the flux expulsion, for the single as well as the binary neutron stars. However, the pinning is also found to play a crucial role which is necessary to account for the observed low field binary and millisecond pulsars.Comment: 23 pages, + 7 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Novel 5-oxo-hexahydroquinoline derivatives: design, synthesis, in vitro P-glycoprotein-mediated multidrug resistance reversal profile and molecular dynamics simulation study

Overexpression of the efflux pump P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is one of the important mechanisms of multidrug resistance (MDR) in many tumor cells. In this study, 26 novel 5-oxo-hexahydroquinoline derivatives containing different nitrophenyl moieties at C-4 and various carboxamide substituents at C-3 were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their ability to inhibit P-gp by measuring the amount of rhodamine 123 (Rh123) accumulation in uterine sarcoma cells that overexpress P-gp (MES-SA/Dx5) using flow cytometry. The effect of compounds with highest MDR reversal activities was further evaluated by measuring the alterations of MES-SA/Dx5 cells' sensitivity to doxorubicin (DXR) using MTT assay. The results of both biological assays indicated that compounds bearing 2-nitrophenyl at C-4 position and compounds with 4-chlorophenyl carboxamide at C-3 demonstrated the highest activities in resistant cells, while they were devoid of any effect in parental nonresistant MES-SA cells. One of the active derivatives, 5c, significantly increased intracellular Rh123 at 100 mu M, and it also significantly reduced the IC50 of DXR by 70.1% and 88.7% at 10 and 25 mu M, respectively, in MES-SA/Dx5 cells. The toxicity of synthesized compounds against HEK293 as a noncancer cell line was also investigated. All tested derivatives except for 2c compound showed no cytotoxicity. A molecular dynamics simulation study was also performed to investigate the possible binding site of 5c in complex with human P-gp, which showed that this compound formed 11 average H-bonds with Ser909, Thr911, Arg547, Arg543 and Ser474 residues of P-gp. A good agreement was found between the results of the computational and experimental studies. The findings of this study show that some 5-oxo-hexahydroquinoline derivatives could serve as promising candidates for the discovery of new agents for P-gp-mediated MDR reversal

Mobile addiction and its relationship with quality of life in medical students

Background: Quality of life is one of the most important health-related outcomes that can be affected by mobile phone addiction. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of mobile phone addiction and its relationship with quality of life in students of Birjand University of Medical Sciences (BUMS). Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 360 students in BUMS in 2018. The sample was randomly selected from each faculty using proportional stratified sampling. To collect data, a questionnaire containing the demographic variables, the PMPAS questionnaire for mobile addiction and SF-12 for quality of life were used. Data were analyzed by independent t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient in SPSS (V.18). Results: The mean age of the students was 25.1 ± 6.3 years that 75.5 were female. In terms of marital status, 60.6 were single. Nearly 75 of students were with moderate or severe mobile phone addiction. The score of mobile phone addiction was higher in single and younger students (p < 0.001). The mean score of quality of life for the students in two aspects of the physical and mental component were 50.81 and 42.86 respectively. Based on the results, there was a significant inverse relationship between scores of mental function and mobile phone addiction (r = �0.35, p < 0.001), this relation was not significant for physical function (r = �0.60, p = 0.25). Conclusions: According to the results, the prevalence of mobile phone addiction among students was high and mobile phone addiction has a negative effect on the quality of life of students, which has a negative effect on psychological performance. © 2019 INDIACLE

Petrography, geochemistry and tectonic significance of the Mahoor granitoids (Lut Block, Eastern Iran)

The Mahoor granitoids are Cu–Zn-bearing porphyries that outcrop in the central part of the Lut Block, about 135 km south-west of Nehbandan (eastern Iran). These granitoids occur mainly as dykes and stocks that intrude Eocene volcanics. Petrographically, all the studied intrusives display porphyritic textures with mm-sized phenocrysts, most commonly of plagioclase and hornblende, embedded in a fine-grained groundmass with variable amounts of plagioclase, hornblende, clinopyroxene, quartz and opaques. Hydrothermal alteration affected these granitoids, as revealed by the common occurrence of sericite, chlorite, sphene/leucoxene, epidote and calcite. Chemical classification criteria show that the intrusives may be named as gabbrodiorites, diorites, monzodiorites and tonalites. Major element geochemistry reveals that all the studied lithologies are typically metaluminous (A/CNK ≤ 0.94) and, in addition, suggest, that they constitute a suite belonging to the high-K calc-alkaline series. Magnetic susceptibility (1485 × 10-5 SI) together with mineralogical and geochemical features show that they belong to magnetite granitoid series (I-type). In primitive mantle-normalized trace element spiderdiagrams, the analysed samples display strong enrichment in LILE compared to HFSE (15.5 ≤ RbN/YN ≤ 45.9), accompanied by negative anomalies of Nb, Ta and Ti. REE chondrite-normalized plots show slight to moderate LREE enrichment (4.9 ≤ LaN/LuN ≤ 8.4) and negative Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu* ratios vary from 0.65 to 0.88). Tectonic characteristics also indicate that the study area is emplaced in a volcanic arc setting. The whole set of geochemical data suggest that the Mahoor granitoids are co-genetic, belong to the calc-alkaline series and have been originated in an active continental margin setting. Sulfide mineralizations (pyrite, chalcopyrite and sphalerite) related to these granitoids are common and occur both disseminated and as hydrothermal veins, indicating a high mineralization potential for this area

A two-parameter random walk with approximate exponential probability distribution

We study a non-Markovian random walk in dimension 1. It depends on two parameters eps_r and eps_l, the probabilities to go straight on when walking to the right, respectively to the left. The position x of the walk after n steps and the number of reversals of direction k are used to estimate eps_r and eps_l. We calculate the joint probability distribution p_n(x,k) in closed form and show that, approximately, it belongs to the exponential family.Comment: 12 pages, updated reference to companion paper cond-mat/060126

The effect of applying pressure to the LIV3 and LI4 on the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome: a randomized clinical trial

Objective: To evaluate the effect of simple acupressure protocol in LIV3, LI4 and placebo points on the quality of life (QOL) in women with premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Method: This paper reports a randomized, single blinded clinical trial. 97 participants (students in of Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Iran) with PMS were allocated to three groups to receive 20 minutes acupressure on different acupoints for 14 days before menstruation for three consecutive menstrual cycles (training and then two cycles self applied acupressure).The acupoints were LIV3 and LI4; one group received acupressure at a placebo point. Each participant completed the PSST scale (to determine PMS severity), HADS scale (for depression and anxiety), and quality of life SF12. Results: The number of people with moderate/severe PMS decreased in LIV3 and LI4 acupressure groups by the second and third cycles compared with the placebo group (p<0.04). Moreover, depression and anxiety scores significantly decreased in the LIV3 and LI4 groups by the second and third cycles compared with the placebo group (p<0.05).Analyzing the score of SF12 fields in the second and third cycles showed a significant difference in all dimensions between the intervention and placebo groups. There was no significant difference between LIV3 and LI4 acupressure groups in decrease of PMS symptoms, anxiety and depression and improving SF12scores (p<0.05). Conclusion: Performing the simple acupressure protocol at LIV3 and LI4 is an effective method to decrease the severity of PMS symptoms, anxiety and depression, and to improve the QOL. Pressure at LIV3 and LI4 appear to be equally effective

Diffusive transport of light in two-dimensional granular materials

We study photon diffusion in a two-dimensional random packing of monodisperse disks as a simple model of granular material. We apply ray optics approximation to set up a persistent random walk for the photons. We employ Fresnel's intensity reflectance with its rich dependence on the incidence angle and polarization state of the light. We present an analytic expression for the transport-mean-free path in terms of the refractive indices of grains and host medium, grain radius, and packing fraction. We perform numerical simulations to examine our analytical result.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure