Arbitration Practice in the Communications Industry in Nigeria: A Review of Nigerian Communication’s Arbitration Law and Guidelines

Entrepreneurs prefer to invest in States where business climate, which includes the law, is conducive to fair yields on capital whereas consumers of services need satisfactory service delivery. The Communications industry - relatively new in Nigeria – is no exception. Disputes are a common detractor; consequently an efficient dispute resolution mechanism for the communications industry is a desideratum for a developing nation such as Nigeria. The Nigerian Communications Act 2003 Cap 97 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 which provides for settlement of communication disputes, inter alia, by means of arbitration attempts to achieve this goal. This paper examines the law and Rules, highlighting deficiencies therein, and proffers suggestions for addressing these short-comings. Key words: arbitration, award, law, Rules, Procedure, amendment, development, judicial review, Arbitration and Conciliation Act

Factors That Do Not Separate Effective and Ineffective Science Teachers

With only two exceptions, no significant differences are found · the profiles of most effective and least effective teachers. Druva and Anderson (1983) recently reported the results of a meta analysis of significant research in science teacher education. Their findings suggest that most factors believed to impact the teaching performance of science instructors do not, in fact, play a very important role. Despite these findings, many science educators continue to accept the same old assumptions and beliefs concerning what is needed to improve science teacher education programs. As the National Science Foundation expands programs in response to new appropriations and directives from Congress, and the National Science Teachers Association suggests more stringent certification requirements and minimal standards (NSTA, 1984), perhaps an examination of the underlying assumptions and beliefs in light of the research evidence is in order

Inflation, Interest Rate, Real Gross Domestic Product and Stock Prices on the Nigerian Stock Exchange: A Post SAP Impact Analysis

This study investigated the impact of Inflation, Interest rate and Real Gross Domestic Product on stock prices of quoted companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) post SAP. Times series data was used covering the period 1985-2012. The stationary properties of the data were tested using Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips Perron (PP) unit root tests. They were all integrated at order I (1). The Johansen Multivariate Cointegration test indicates the existence of long-run equilibrium relationship among the variables in the model. There are no causal relationships between the variables based on the Granger Causality test result. Our equation estimation result indicates a good fit for the model. 96.8% of variations in the dependent variable were as a result of changes in the independent variables. The Durbin-Watson of 1.867475 is a little below the benchmark of 2 but we don’t have to worry about serial correlation problem. Two other diagnostic tests the Breusch-Pagan-Godfrey test for heteroscedasticity and Ramsey RESET test for stability and both indicate we don’t have to worry about those problems. Specifically, the findings suggest that inflation was the most important variable influencing stock prices in Nigeria. Therefore, it is the opinion of this paper that stronger measures be adopted to effectively combat the problem of inflation in Nigeria. Key Words: Heteroscedasticity, Stability, interest rate, Cointegration, Causality, Inflatio

Simplified R-Symmetry Breaking and Low-Scale Gauge Mediation

We argue that some of the difficulties in constructing realistic models of low-scale gauge mediation are artifacts of the narrow set of models that have been studied. In particular, much attention has been payed to the scenario in which the Goldstino superfield in an O'Raifeartaigh model is responsible for both supersymmetry breaking and R-symmetry breaking. In such models, the competing problems of generating sufficiently massive gauginos while preserving an acceptably light gravitino can be quite challenging. We show that by sharing the burdens of breaking supersymmetry and R-symmetry with a second field, these problems are easily solved even within the O'Raifeartaigh framework. We present explicit models realizing minimal gauge mediation with a gravitino mass in the eV range that are both calculable and falsifiable.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures, references added, minor change

Assessment of Arthropod Ectoparasites associated with Poultry at Zoological Garden, Owerri, South-East, Nigeria

The characterization of arthropod ectoparasites infesting poultry at the Nekede Zoological Garden (NZG) in Owerri was conducted from May to July, 2017.  Arthropod sampling was done weekly by picking them from the bodies of their hosts after parting the feathers and/or by blowing of same. Lice and fleas were collected by applying concentrated ethyl alcohol-soaked cotton wool to anaesthetize the parasites. Mites were collected by scrapping the skin around their feet gently in order not to injure the bird. All the parasites collected were sorted and labeled based on sex, age and breed before they were transferred to the Laboratory of the Department of Zoology and Environmental Biology, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. Specimens were observed under a stereo-microscope, using x10 magnification power. Identification to generic and specific levels was done with the aid of pictures and taxonomic keys. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentages. A total of 165 ectoparasites were collected belonging to five genera and five species. Irrespective of sex, age, breed, species or/and management level,  lice infestation was highest (84.24%), followed by fleas (10.30%) and the least was mites (5.45%). Prevalence of the ectoparasites infestation was higher in females (89.10%) than males (74.44%), adults (93.98%) than young (62.50%), and local (86.96%) than exotic (80.15%) breed. No ostrich was infested with lice and no female exotic poultry was infested with flea. &nbsp

Constraints on Dark Matter from Colliders

We show that colliders can impose strong constraints on models of dark matter, in particular when the dark matter is light. We analyze models where the dark matter is a fermion or scalar interacting with quarks and/or gluons through an effective theory containing higher dimensional operators which represent heavier states that have been integrated out of the effective field theory. We determine bounds from existing Tevatron searches for monojets as well as expected LHC reaches for a discovery. We find that colliders can provide information which is complementary or in some cases even superior to experiments searching for direct detection of dark matter through its scattering with nuclei. In particular, both the Tevatron and the LHC can outperform spin dependent searches by an order of magnitude or better over much of parameter space, and if the dark matter couples mainly to gluons, the LHC can place bounds superior to any spin independent search.Comment: 23 pages, 16 figure

The application of immunohistochemistry as a research technique in veterinary medical schools in Nigeria

Immunohistochemistry involves the use of commercially prepared colour labelled antibodies to detect the presence and distribution of specific cellular proteins known as antigens. It is a diagnostic and research technique employed in medicine, but may have limited veterinary medical application in Nigeria. The present paper accessed the level of awareness and application of immunohistochemistry as a research technique among staff of the veterinary medical schools in Nigeria. As at the time of the study, ten veterinary schools were accredited by the Veterinary Council of Nigeria, thus used for the analysis. Respondents to a structured questionnaire from the veterinary schools included laboratory technologists and academic staff of the departments of veterinary anatomy, pathology and public health. Design of the questions progressed from mere awareness to theoretical and practical knowledge of the technique. Although 93.33 % of respondents who are academic staff were aware of the technique, and an equally high percentage of those aware of the technique have varying levels of theoretical knowledge, only 32.65 % of these respondents have practical experience of immunohistochemistry technique. Similarly, among the laboratory technologists who were aware of the technique, only 34.78 % have actively conducted it. Respondents of the veterinary anatomy specialty had the highest percentage of practical knowledge. Results also indicated that there was only one veterinary medical school with a functional immunohistochemistry laboratory in Nigeria. The paper recommended, among other things, the introduction of immunohistochemistry as a practical course in the curriculum of the veterinary schools in Nigeria.Keywords: Immunohistochemistry; Nigerian veterinary schools; NU

The effects of singeing on the histological appearance of some visceral organs in the red Sokoto goat (Capra hirrcus)

The histology of visceral organs from singed Red Sokoto goats were assessed for reliability for use as histopathological samples from singed abattoir specimen. This becomes important as samples for histopathology and histology of goats in Nigeria have been sourced from singed carcasses, with no available literature reporting on the effect of singeing on the histological appearance of tissues from such sample. Hence, this study will fill this knowledge gap. The unfixed samples post-singeing were grouped into time periods of an hour interval up to 3 hours. They were subsequently fixed after allocated tie framed and processed for histological observation. The slides were graded on a scale of 1 to 3, where 1 referred to highly distorted, 2 referred to moderately distorted and 3 referred to mildly distorted. The samples from unsigned viscera that were fixed immediately served as control. Most of the visceral organs showed moderate distortions, except the intestines which degenerated to highly distorted architecture after 3 hours. The stomach compartments displayed normal organ structure similar to the control samples. Blood extravasations were observed in most of the organs. This project shows that samples from singed carcasses that are fixed within 2 hours post-singeing are stable for histology or histopathological studies. It also implied that abattoir samples for histopathogy should be sent to the nearest laboratory about 2 hours radius for fixation and processing to generate reliable data.Key words: Singeing, organ architecture, fixation, histology, histopathology, Nigeri

Analysis of mutations causing familial hypercholesterolaemia in black South African patients of different ancestry

Background. Familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is usually caused by mutations in three genes (LDLR, APOB and PCSK9).Objective. To identify the spectrum of FH-causing mutations in black South African (SA) patients.Methods. DNA samples of 16 unrelated South African FH patients with elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, tendon xanthomas and corneal arcus (3 clinically homozygous FH and 13 heterozygous FH) of ethnic African origin were screened for mutations in the LDLR (coding region, promoter and intron/exon boundaries), APOB (part of exon 26) and PCSK9 genes (exon 7), using high-resolution melting.Results. Eight LDLR mutations were identified, for an overall detection rate of 8/19 predicted FH-causing alleles (42.1%). The previously reported six base pair deletion p.(D47_G48del) was found in two patients, and two novel variants (c.1187-25T>C and c.1664T>G p.(L555R)) were found, both predicted to be pathogenic using in silico web-based predictive algorithms. No pathogenic variants in APOB or PCSK9 were found.Conclusions. These findings contribute to the knowledge of allelic heterogeneity in the spectrum of FH-causing mutations in black SA patients, signifying their ancestral diversity. The relatively low overall detection rate may reflect locus heterogeneity of the FH phenotype in black SA FH patients

Gluino Decay as a Probe of High Scale Supersymmetry Breaking

A supersymmetric standard model with heavier scalar supersymmetric particles has many attractive features. If the scalar mass scale is O(10 - 10^4) TeV, the standard model like Higgs boson with mass around 125 GeV, which is strongly favored by the LHC experiment, can be realized. However, in this scenario the scalar particles are too heavy to be produced at the LHC. In addition, if the scalar mass is much less than O(10^4) TeV, the lifetime of the gluino is too short to be measured. Therefore, it is hard to probe the scalar particles at a collider. However, a detailed study of the gluino decay reveals that two body decay of the gluino carries important information on the scalar scale. In this paper, we propose a test of this scenario by measuring the decay pattern of the gluino at the LHC.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures; version published in JHE