Civil War and Globalization: The Effect of Colonialism on Political Globalization

The purpose of this paper to determine why civil war onset reduces political globalization in former British colonies. Through linear regression and logistic regression analyses, I test the affect of civil war onset and the presence of civil war on political globalization, controlling for former British colonies, French colonies, and other factors. More important, however, is the history behind British colonialism. Through setting up a unique institutional system and maintaining ties to its former colonies, the British have created an atmosphere conducive to international political engagement after the onset of civil war. This study shows that while civil war onset creates an immediate backlash in former British colonies, these same states actually increase their political globalization as the duration of conflict continues

Political Globalization and Civil War in Former British Colonies

The purpose of this paper to determine why civil war onset reduces political globalization in former British colonies. I set out by testing the relationship between being a former British colony and civil war presence, demonstrating a positive, though not statistically significant, relationship. I also examine the history of British colonialism. Through setting up specific system of indirect rule, British colonizers created conditions that contributed to intra-state conflict. Furthermore, through constructing a unique institutional system and maintaining ties to its former colonies, the British have created an atmosphere conducive to international political engagement after the onset of civil war. Yet, when the relationship between civil war presence and political globalization is tested, it is demonstrated that civil war presence actually increases political globalization. This relationship is further explained by controlling for the post-Cold War period, which gives civil war presence and British colonialism further significance in determining political globalization

Concentration in the Humanities

Concentration in the Humanities is a three-part project that helps Humanities students deal with digital distractions. The Concentration in the Humanities Project will serve as a pilot. Weber State's Composition Program (which one of the grant participants directs) will integrate the pilot's best practices into its curriculum. Concentration in the Humanities will also catalyze campus conversations about the problem of distraction in the digital age and the importance of learning how to focus when attempting to read or write

Risk aversion and sustainable maize production in Nigeria: Some challenges and prospects for agricultural and economic development

This paper determines the degree or extent of farmer’s risk aversion that affects sustainable maize production in Northern Nigeria. Using a ridge regression analysis, a measure of risk aversion was derived for each individual farmer in a model of safety-first behaviour from a cross-sectional survey of 350 maize producers in northern Nigeria. The distribution of the degree of risk aversion shows a high skewness towards the risk averters (high risk farmers) and centered around 1.20, and standard deviation of 0.37. This distribution is then explained by a set of specific variables that characterize the farmers’ behaviour in the study area using a Tobit model. Susceptibility to risk was found to be highly premised on the socioeconomic factors (e.g. age of household head), farm specific variables (e.g. proportion of income from maize) and farmers’ attitudinal factors against risk (e.g. safety first level of probability of sale). These findings can be used to construct a framework of development programs for peasant farmers, which provide some challenging prospectsMaize, Nigeria, Risk aversion, Tobit model, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Preparing Students For Citizenship: The Pedagogical Vision of Yale's Noah Porter, Harvard's Charles Eliot and Princeton's Woodrow Wilson

A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Luke O. Fernandez in May 1997.The dissertation examines the historic role of elite higher education in preparing students for active participation in political life. It does this by examining the pedagogical visions and curricular commitments of Noah Porter (president of Yale from 1871 to 1886), Charles Eliot (president of Harvard from 1869 to 1909) and Woodrow Wilson (president of Princeton from 1902 to 1910). Educational historians have usually cast Eliot as the progressive force in American higher education while painting Porter and Wilson in diminished or even contrary roles. While this dissertation does not take issue with the basic thrust of this history, it focuses on deficiencies in all three of these educators' approaches that served to compromise their commitment to strong civic education. These educators compromised, or threatened to compromise, civic education because they ascribed to ideals and practices which are often at odds with the development of citizenship. The determination of these educators' civic commitments is circumscribed by the dissertation's exclusive focus on a republican definition of citizenship. Republicans equate citizenship with participation in political life and are consequently threatened by rhetorical and economic practices which appear to discourage political participation. The dissertation assesses how dedicated Porter, Eliot, and Wilson were to the ideals of republican citizenship by examining their commitment to forms of communication that foster political discussion, and by examining their attachment to economic practices that republican theorists have found inimical to citizenship. The rhetorical and economic proclivities of Porter, Eliot, and Wilson constitute the main approaches for gauging their civic commitments. However, these two approaches are framed and clarified by describing their sympathy for elite and exclusionary forms of higher education and by delineating their overt exhortations to service and their attempts to integrate their schools into a larger public sphere. All of their civic visions were ultimately compromised but they were compromised in different ways. Eliot's civic commitments were compromised by rhetorical and economic proclivities that were closely tied to his strong sympathies for professionalization . Porter's were threatened by an attraction to cloistered living and by archaic pedagogies. Of the three, Wilson displayed the most abiding civic commitments. But even Wilson's civic commitments were ultimately compromised by his attraction to elite forms of education

Structure Property Relationships in Organic Conjugated Systems

A series of pi(п) conjugated oligomers containing 1 to 6 monomer units were studied by absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopies. The results are discussed and examined with regard to the variation of the optical properties with the increase of effective conjugation length. It was found that there was a linear relationship between the positioning of the absorption and photoluminescence maxima plotted against inverse conjugation length. The relationships are in good agreement with the simple particle in a box method, one of the earliest descriptions of the properties of one-dimensional organic molecules. Variations in the infinite chain limit band gap for a range of oligomeric systems are correlated with backbone structure and bond alternation parameters. In addition to the electronic transition energies, it was also observed that the Stokes shift exhibited a power dependence with inverse conjugation length, implying a correlation between the electron-vibrational coupling and chain length. This correlation is extended to relative luminescence yields and is examined via Raman spectrosocopy. There is a clear indication that the vibrational activity and thus by extension nonradiative decay processes are controllable through molecular structure. The implications in terms of the design of molecular materials for optical applications are discussed. The structure property relationships models are further used for the investigation of novel organic conjugated polymers. The polymers used are a sequential family of PPV derivatives containing a systematic alternation of the п conjugated back bone by the inclusion of acene units of differing number of repeat units. The substitution consisted of the insertion of higher order acene units into the polymer back-bone, maintaining the side chains in the same relative structural position. It was established that the absorption and emission are a trade-off between the electronic properties of the more conjugated naphthyl and anthryl units and their reduced contribution across the connecting vinyl bond. The results are discussed and examined with regard to the variation of the optical properties with increasing total electron affinity, a parameter which represents the total electron affinities of the backbone constituents (EAtotal). It was found that there was a linear relationship between the positioning of the absorption and the photoluminescence maxima plotted against EAtotal). The vibrational correlations observed in the simple oligomeric systems are extended to show that the vibrational characteristics of complex polymers can be examined using Raman spectroscopy. It is shown that in the polymer system the Raman spectrum and thus electron vibrational coupling is dominated by modes along the conjugated backbone. These modes are suppressed by the introduction of the larger, electron retaining and more rigid naphthyl and anthryl units. It is shown that the dominant effect is the reduced electronic coupling across the linking vinyl bond. However it is also established that the mismatching of the vibrational frequencies of the components of the conjugated back-bone contributes to the reduction of the electron vibrational coupling of the system. Finally the fluorescence yield was shown to be optimised by the reduction in the vibrational intensity. The vibrational study elucidates the benefit of reducing the pathways of non-radiative decay and illustrates how fluorescence yield can be optimised through the progressive restriction of the available vibrational modes. To further elucidate the change in the non-radiative rate as a function of the continual substitution, the Strickler-Berg equation was used to calculate the radiative rate and hence, using well-known photophysical equations, the non-radiative rate. The radiative rate was shown to be the dominate factor in the increase of the fluorescence yield and shown to be proportional to the integrated Raman intensity. TCSPC was employed as a further tool to investigate the transient process and their variation with structural changes

Quantum Roaming Dynamics on Model Double Morse and Ion-Molecule Potentials

The quantum dynamics on a pair of model two dimensional potential energy surfaces is studied using time-independent and wave packet analyses. The first potential is a reduced dimensional model of an ion-dipole reaction and the second is a planar double Morse potential. Both potentials have been of recent interest in characterizing the roaming reaction mechanism using classical dynamics. Roaming resonance states related to the classically observed roaming dynamics are isolated, and quantum signatures of roaming on these potentials are discussed. The effects of the shape of the double Morse potential on the quantum dynamics are also considered

The Relationship Between English Language Test Scores Among Nigerian High School Students And Teacher Beliefs About Language Teaching And Their Classroom Practices

English language mastery is important to the academic achievement of high school students in Nigeria. As the official language of instruction in multi linguistic Nigerian schools, proficiency in English language is essential for the academic success of students in high schools. The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between English language test scores among Nigerian high school students and teacher beliefs about language teaching and their classroom practices. Three research questions and associated hypotheses were addressed in this study. A total of 23 teachers, one from each high school in the Government District of Nigeria, participated in this study. The teachers completed three surveys, a demographic survey, Teacher Beliefs, and Teacher Practices. The teachers also provide the scores of their students on the practice English proficiency test that students complete prior to taking the West African School Certificate exams. The relationships between teacher beliefs and practices, teacher beliefs and their students\u27 test scores, and teacher practices and their students\u27 test scores were not statistically significant. These findings may indicate that the students did not try to do well on the exam because they perceived it was not important. Teachers may need additional professional development to incorporate strategies that have been found useful for English language learners. The teachers may have lacked the necessary supplies (books, etc.) needed to teach English effectively. Additional research is needed to determine what is contributing to the poor performance on the English proficiency exam

Information and Communication Technology Literacy Skills and Class Instruction: a Comprehensive Perception Survey of University of Benin First Year Students

This study investigates the influence of class instruction (GST 111 – use of library) on University of Benin (UNIBEN) first year students’ information and communication technology (ICT) literacy skills. The study adopted the survey research method using the questionnaire as research instrument. First year students in the 2013/2014 academic session constituted the population of study. Simple random and total enumeration sampling methods were used to collect data from students in five out of twelve faculties in the university. The questionnaire used is a 4-point likert scale instrument: SA (Strongly agreed) = 4; A (Agreed) = 3; D (Disagreed) = 2; and SD (Strongly disagreed) = 1. Data was collected at the end of the first semester when the GST 111 – use of library was concluded. Results revealed that Computer, Software, Internet, WWW and ICT literacy skills of the students are high. There is a significant difference in Computer, Software, Internet and WWW and ICT literacy skills of the students per faculty. Majority (65%) of the students are skillful in ICT use. Class instruction is very well perceived by the students and it positively influenced students’ ICT literacy skills. Gender and secondary school attended did not influence students’ ICT literacy skills. There is no significant difference between male and female students’ ICT literacy skills as well as students that attended private or public secondary schools. It is therefore concluded that the students are highly ICT literate and class instruction (GST 111 – use of library) course mainly influenced the students’ ICT literacy skills thus the class instruction programme in the university is adequate and effective