Tax Expenditure in Sub Saharan Africa: The Nigerian Experience

The Nigerian government established the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies(NEEDS) in 2003 to achieve its trade policy of which the reform of Nigeria Custom Services is one of the major functions. Over the years, custom and excise duties have been major sources of revenue apart from crude oil.However, the problems of corruption, fraud and malpractices together with inefficiencies and ineffectiveness in operations have hindered the desire to contribute maximally to the economic development of the nation. The central objective of trade policy was to provide protection for domestic industries and reduce the perceived dependence on imports; reduce level of unemployment and generate more revenues from the non-oil sector,hence tariffs on raw materials and intermediate capital goods were scaled down. Duty exemptions and concessions remain some of the quantitative policy instruments for attracting investment and boost domestic production. This paper will review; discuss Tax Expenditure and the Nigerian experience, especially on loss of revenue from custom

Exercise in Antiquity and Modern Times: Catholicon for Healthy Living

Ancient physicians such as Herodicus, Hippocrates and Galen recommended exercises as panacea for healthy living in antiquity. Modern scholars such as Christos and Tipton have variously demonstrated the importance of exercises and sports in ancient and modern European societies citing exercises as treatments for some illnesses by the doctor in the Hippocratic Corpus. This paper examined the importance of exercise in antiquity and modernity, even as it serves as a catholicon for healthy living, with a view to identifying the values and relevance of exercise in dealing with illnesses and promoting good health. Sallis and Owen behavioural epidemiology was adopted as theoretical framework. The historical and comparative methodologies were adopted as the study examined the historical trajectory and cross-cultural variations of exercise in antiquity and today’s world. The discourse in this study demonstrated that exercise has been functional as medicine and for healthy living in antiquity and modernity. Medical practitioners, exercise physiologists, including laymen understand its importance and further recommend exercise suitable for people of varying ages. Further studies may be designed to examine low to medium and medium to high intensity exercise and its health implications.Key Words: Exercises, Health, Antiquity, Modernit

Evaluation of Natural Radioactivity and Radiation Hazards of Soils around Petroleum Products Marketing Company using Gamma Ray Spectrometry

This study aimed at evaluating natural radioactivity and radiation hazards of soils around a petroleum product marketing company due to anthropogenic influences using gamma ray spectrometry. Top soils (5 cm deep) were collected from diverse locations inside the premises of the Company using standard analytical technique, while control samples were acquired at approximately 200 m from the study area. Mean activity concentrations of the radionuclides in the test soils were 89.36 Bq/kg for 40K, 92.1 Bq/kg for 238U and 10.95 Bq/kg for 232Th, which are more than that of control samples with statistically significant differences. Assessment of the radiological levels of the oil-contaminated soils were done using internal hazard index, external hazard index, annual gonadal dose equivalent, annual effective dose rate, radium equivalent, total absorbed dose rate and representative level index (IŸ). The results showed that mean annual equivalent dose rate of the oil-contaminated soil (0.46 mSv/yr) fell below the permissive annual dose limit (1.0 mSv/yr). Mean internal hazard index (0.55 Bq/kg) and external hazard index (0.30 Bq/kg) values were less than the minimum permissible limit (1.0). Mean annual gonadal dose equivalent value (358.46 µSvy-1) of the radionuclides was close to the world average of 300 µSvy-1, while the mean representative gamma index value (0.78) was also less than unity. Estimated mean value (114.65 Bq/kg) of the radium equivalent was also below the world average of 370 Bq/kg, the values are also more than that of the control samples. Though the soils exhibited low gamma radiation, however lengthy term exposure may pose an inherent cancerous ill-health. It is vital to repeat this investigation periodically to avert precarious effects of anthropogenic influences; also indiscriminate discarding of oils should be discouraged. Keywords:    Gamma ray spectrometry; radionuclide; refined petroleum products; risk assessment; soil

Nonconvex Separable Programming Problem for Optimal Raw Material Mix in Flexible Polyurethane Foam Production

Nonconvex Separable Programming (NSP)  for selecting optimal raw material mix for flexible polyurethane foam production (FPFP) was developd. With unit cost function () as objective function;,Density(P1); compression set (P2); elongation(P3); hardness-index(P4) and tensile strength (P5) and other boundary conditions as constraints, an NSP foam raw material mix problem was defined and solved. Twelve existing formulation were used for validation .The cost and physical properties were determined and compared to the existing products using t-test. The optimal raw material mix 1.00, 0.4366, 0.0398, 0.0066, 0.0115, 0.0026, 0.0046 kg of polyol, toluene-di-isocynate, water, amine, silicone-oil, stannous-octoate and methylene-chloride respectively, were significantly different from  the existing formulations. The validated values of P1, P2, P3, P4, P5 from optimally formulated foams were 23.83kgm-3, 8.6%, 159.35%, 143.19N, and 117.33kNm-2, respectively and conformed to standard. The associated costs per metric tonne of the optimal mixes were lower than that of existing mixes.   Keywords: Polyurethane foam, Optimal-mix, Separable  programming , nonconvex, elongation

EFFECT OF PHYSICAL EXERCISE PARTICIPATION ON SELECTED INDICES OF MENTAL HEALTH BETWEEN STUDENT ATHLETES AND NON-ATHLETES OF OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY, ILE-IFE, NIGERIA

Participation in physical exercise is regarded as a healthy behaviour that promotes both physical and mental health among students. It is a preventive and therapeutic measure for mental health illness. However, despite the positive relationship between participation in physical exercise and mental health, many students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria still engage in sedentary life style which increases their vulnerability to mental health issues. Several studies have been carried out on students and mental health, behavioural health risks such as substance use, unsafe sexual behaviour, violence and increased risk of communicable and non-communicable diseases, injury and mortality and anxiety as the most prevalent disorder found in men and women but little research effort has been directed towards the influence of exercise participation on these selected indices of mental health between student athletes and non-athletes of Obafemi Awolowo University. Correlation survey research design was used for this study. Data obtained were coded and analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency count, simple percentage, mean, standard deviation and bar chart for the demographic variables and research questions. Chi square (CRAMMER V) and multiple regression were used to test hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The population for this study comprises of male and female student athletes and non-athletes of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, as participants. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select Two hundred (200) respondents from five (5) faculties. A standardised questionnaire on depression and anxiety scale was used as instrument for data collection with reliability co-efficient (r) of 0.71. Two research questions were answered and five hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance. Findings from this study showed significance on depression between student athletes and non-athletes (X2=58.791, df=12,

Design and simulation of a mobile robot platform for navigation and obstacle detection

Mobile platforms are expected to gain access to risk zones and hazardous environment. A typical example is the infectious disease environment to deliver items to a sick patient. The robot is aimed to manoeuver round flat grounds in indoor environment. Computer aided design (CAD) models of the selected concepts were developed in Fusion360 and imported into SolidWorks to optimize and improve the design. The design is focused on the development of the wheelbase. Arduino Microcontroller was the system and codes control board and it was developed using the Arduino software. The motor driver was used to drive the DC motor for robot navigation with ultrasonic sensor for obstacle detection at a range of 20 cm. Result shows that the robot was able to navigate round flat ground while detecting obstacles within 20 cm

Thermal Modelling for A Pilot Scale Pyrolytic Furnace for Production of Carbon Black

Carbon black (CB) is a very important material useful for various modern applications. There are a lot of attention currently on the extraction of a form of CB obtainable from waste tyres which is usually referred to as pyrolytic Carbon black (CBp). The authors investigated the pyrolysis process of a pyrolytic furnace built for the production of CBp using the thermal numerical principles to standardise the application. SolidWorks@ Flow Simulation software was used to replicate the process by supplying the initial conditions, the boundary conditions and the operating conditions guided by the numerical analysis. The simulated behaviour of the furnace was validated by the real-life experiments performed to produce CBp from the waste tyre

Intergovernmental Grant Transfers from Central to Local Levels of Government in Ghana: Does Formula Allocation Prevents Political Influences?

This study examines how the district assemblies’ common fund grant is distributed among the local governments in Ghana to ascertain the objectivity of the sharing formula scheme created under the 1992 Constitution. The dynamic GMM panel estimation approach is employed for the empirical analysis with focus on new versus mature democracy and how swing and aligned districts tend to benefit from the distribution. Annual data on the fund disbursements and the election outcomes from 1994 to 2018 for 216 district assemblies is used. The findings reveal that average transfers to each district was Gh?7.54 million which generally increased by 9.4 percent in election years reflecting the opportunistic behavior of incumbent governments. Swing districts benefited more from the increase than non-swing districts, as the former received 4.3 percent more than the latter. Aligned districts in new democracy received, 2 percent more than non-aligned ones, while it was 4.3 percent more for swing districts in mature democracy. Therefore, the allocation formula is subject to political manipulations hence it is recommended that the unilateral appointment of the fund’s administrator by incumbent Presidents be reviewed in addition to creating autonomous public agencies to be responsible for the allocation formula and the fund administration independently

Principal’s Classroom Visitation and Inspection, and Teachers’ Job Performance in Akwa-Ibom State, Nigeria

This expo facto research investigated the influence of principal’s classroom visitation and inspection strategy on teachers’ job performance in Akwa-Ibom State, Nigeria. Subjects involved six hundred and sixty (660) teachers and three thousand, three hundred senior secondary school students which were randomly selected from two hundred and thirty two (232) secondary schools in Akwa-Ibom State. Data was collected with Principals’ Instructional Supervisory Strategies Questionnaire (PISSQ) and Teachers’ Job Performance Scale Questionnaire (TJPSQ). Two (2) hypotheses were tested in the study. The result of analysis utilizing one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that principal’s classroom visitation strategy, and inspection of lesson notes strategy each significantly influenced teachers’ job performance. It is recommended that regular supervision which must include classroom visitation strategy, and inspection of lesson notes strategy be organized by government to enhance teachers’ job performance

Development of a Polythene Recycling Machine from Locally Sourced Materials

Non-biodegradable polythene and nylon wastes constitute a nuisance in all the urban areas in Nigeria. The paper presents the design and manufacture of a waste-recycling machine to convert these waste materials to reusable materials. The machine uses designed to use fixed and rotary blades for slitting the loaded wastes. The rotary blades are rotated by a single phase, high speed electric motor and the friction generated provides the heat required to soften the waste charges. The recycling machine produces an average of 35kg of small flakes of recycled waste per hour at a machine speed of 2880 rpm. Keywords: Polythene, Nylon, Biodegradable, Waste Recycling, Electric Moto