Kant’s Categorical Imperative as a Base for Philosophy of Social Studies Moral Education in Nigeria

Kant’s philosophy has in it some bases of moral actions which he outlines as categorical imperatives. This philosophical base advocates for moral duties for duty sake and not for exterior motives. Many moral problems have been identified in Nigerian society as ensuing from actions or behaviours arising from exterior motives as the bases for actions. Testing Kant’s moral principle against the moral requirements in the context of Social Studies Education, it has been found out that Kant’s moral imperative if adopted in Social Studies Education as a philosophical base will enhance effectiveness of Social Studies as a discipline aimed at producing morally positive citizens in Nigeria. From the above study, some recommendations were made

Effective political stability in Nigeria through responsive democratic education processes: some philosophical perspectives

Political stability arising from individual and collective actions are some of Nigeria’s current challenges. The researcher set out to study possible philosophical means of enhancing in learners the skills to contribute to political stability in Nigeria. The researcher speculated that related ineffectiveness of our education arises from exclusive democratic approaches to curriculum implementations in attempt to be learner centered. Research questions were raised. Multiple philosophical research methods of speculation, analyses and prescription were used in the study. A philosophical study of possible exclusive democratic approaches in classroom practices revealed the need to complement our education processes with appropriate level of content centered approaches to enhance learners’ skills to perform action that bring about political stability. The study gave some guides for inclusive democratic education theory formulation and classroom practices. Conclusions were drawn and consequent recommendations were made.Keywords: Learner centered curriculum, classroom practices, education and political stabilit

Comparing Performance Potentials of Classical and Intuitionistic Fuzzy Systems in Terms of Sculpting the State Space

This paper provides new application-independent perspectives about the performance potential of an intuitionistic (I-) fuzzy system over a (classical) TSK fuzzy system. It does this by extending sculpting the state space works from a TSK fuzzy system to an I-fuzzy system. It demonstrates that, for piecewise-linear membership functions (trapezoids and triangles), an I-fuzzy system always has significantly more first-order rule partitions of the state space-the coarse sculpting of the state space-than does a TSK fuzzy system, and that some I-fuzzy systems also have more second-order rule partitions of the state space-the fine sculpting of the state space-than does a TSK fuzzy system. It is the author's conjecture that, for piecewise-linear membership functions (trapezoids and triangles): It is the always-significantly greater coarse (and possibly fine) sculpting of the state space that provides an I-fuzzy system with the potential to outperform a TSK fuzzy system; and, that a type-1 I-fuzzy system has the potential to outperform an interval type-2 fuzzy system. Index Terms-intuitionistic fuzzy sets, intuitionistic fuzzy systems, TSK fuzzy systems, rule partitions, sculpting the state space

Formal Safety Assessment of a Marine Seismic Survey Vessel Operation, Incorporating Risk Matrix and Fault Tree Analysis

In maritime safety research, risk is assessed usually within the framework of formal safety assessment (FSA), which provides a formal and systematic methodology to improve the safety of lives, assets, and the environment. A bespoke application of FSA to mitigate accidents in marine seismic surveying is put forward in this paper, with the aim of improving the safety of seismic vessel operations, within the context of developing an economically viable strategy. The work herein takes a close look at the hazards in North Sea offshore seismic surveying, in order to identify critical risk factors, leading to marine seismic survey accidents. The risk factors leading to undesirable events are analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. A risk matrix is introduced to screen the identified undesirable events. Further to the screening, Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) is presented to investigate and analyse the most critical risks of seismic survey operation, taking into account the lack of historical data. The obtained results show that man overboard (MOB) event is a major risk factor in marine seismic survey operation; lack of training on safe work practice, slippery deck as a result of rain, snow or water splash, sea state affecting human judgement, and poor communication are identified as the critical risk contributors to the MOB event. Consequently, the risk control options are focused on the critical risk contributors for decision-making. Lastly, suggestions for the introduction and development of the FSA methodology are highlighted for safer marine and offshore operations in general

Publisher Correction: Non-tuberculous Mycobacteria isolated from Pulmonary samples in sub-Saharan Africa - A Systematic Review and Meta Analyses.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper

Experimental study of pedestrian flow through a bottleneck

In this work the results of a bottleneck experiment with pedestrians are presented in the form of total times, fluxes, specific fluxes, and time gaps. A main aim was to find the dependence of these values from the bottleneck width. The results show a linear decline of the specific flux with increasing width as long as only one person at a time can pass, and a constant value for larger bottleneck widths. Differences between small (one person at a time) and wide bottlenecks (two persons at a time) were also found in the distribution of time gaps.Comment: accepted for publication in J. Stat. Mec

Treatment variation in stent choice in patients with stable or unstable coronary artery disease

Aim: Variations in treatment are the result of differences in demographic and clinical factors (e.g. anatomy), but physician and hospital factors may also contribute to treatment variation. The choice of treatment is considered important since it could lead to differences in long-term outcomes. This study explores the associations with stent choice: i.e. drug-eluting stent (DES) versus bare-metal stents (BMS) for Dutch patients diagnosed with stable or unstable coronary artery disease (CAD). Methods & results: Associations with treatment decisions were based on a prospective cohort of 692 patients with stable or unstable CAD. Of those patients, 442 patients were treated with BMS or DES. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to identify variables associated with stent choice. Bivariate analyses showed that NYHA class, number of diseased vessels, previous percutaneous coronary intervention, smoking, diabetes, and the treating hospital were associated with stent type. After correcting for other associations the treating hospital remained significantly associated with stent type in the stable CAD population. Conclusions: This study showed that several factors were associated with stent choice. While patients generally appear to receive the most optimal stent given their clinical characteristics, stent choice seems partially determined by the treating hospital, which may lead to differences in longterm outcome