Enhancement of Critical Thinking Skills of Vocational and Adult Education Students for Entrepreneurship Development in Nigeria

Business and occupations are becoming more reliant on cognitive-capacity of workers who are well grounded in critical thinking skills. This study is, therefore, focused on the enhancement of critical thinking skills of vocational and adult education students for entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. Four hundred and eighteen lecturers in vocational and adult education programmes in universities in South-Eastern Nigeria made up the population for the study. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study while 32-item structured questionnaire and focus group discussion were used for data collection. The questionnaire was face-validated by experts. Cronbach Alpha reliability technique was used to ascertain the internal consistency of the questionnaire which yielded a coefficient of 0.78. The data collected with the 418 copies of questionnaire administered and returned were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while t-test statistic was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that the ability to analyse, evaluate and challenge assumptions, information and opposing point of view are essential critical thinking skills required by students. The study also identified many strategies for enhancing critical thinking skills of students to include: debate and group discussion; solving numerical problems and puzzles, among others. Based on the findings of the study, the researchers recommended that capacity-building programmes should be organized regularly for lecturers for them to teach students critical thinking skills effectively. Key words: Entrepreneurship, Critical Thinking Skills, Education, Vocational and Adult Education

Strategic Management of Climate Change Challenges to Crop and Livestock Productions in Southern Nigeria

The study investigated strategic management of climate change challenges to crop and livestock production in Southern Nigeria which is currently being threatened by climate change effects/challenges. Crop and livestock production in this area include economic farm products that are currently facing serious climate change threats /challenges. Climate change and agricultural production literature show that the havoc caused by climate change in Nigeria suggests more frightening future threats on agriculture in Africa. This makes it imperative to evolve sustainable strategic management techniques for managing climate change challenges to crop and livestock productions that constitute major farm products in Southern Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. A total of 610 respondents comprising of 266 registered crop farmers, 266 livestock farmers and 78 agricultural extension agents were used as study sample.  A questionnaire and focus group discussion guide were the instruments used for data collection. Data were analyzed using the means, standard deviation and t-test statistics. The study revealed the Weaknesses & Threats; Strengths & Opportunities (SWOT analysis) of climate change challenges to crop and livestock productions. It was found among others that: death and low yield of crops and livestock due to drought; heat stress are Weaknesses and Threats while the Strengths and Opportunities include, adoption of species or varieties of crops and breeds of animals that are resistant to drought and heat stress as well as government intervention. It was recommended among others that agricultural scientists and researchers should focus more on developing crops and livestock species that are climate change tolerant. Key Words: Strategic Management, SWOT Analysis, Climate Change, Crop & Livestock production

Effects of Carburization with Palm Kernel Shell/Coconut Shell Mixture on the Tensile Properties and Case Hardness of Low Carbon Steel

The effect of using mixtures of palm kernel shell and coconut shell as carburizers for low carbon steel at 950oC on the tensile properties and case hardness was studied. The carburizers were washed, dried, milled and sieved to 150µm particle size. They were mixed in various compositions to serve as carburizers. In each composition, 20wt% of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) was added as energizer. Tensile and hardness specimens were machined from low carbon steel. Seven tensile and seven hardness specimens were subjected to pack carburization process with different compositions of the carburizers, and thereafter quenched and tempered at 450oC for forty five minutes in a heat treatment furnace. The tensile and hardness properties show that better properties were obtained with mixtures of the carburizers compared to the use of single carburizing agent

Designing disorder: spatial ordering and ethno-religious conflicts in Jos metropolis, North-Central Nigeria

This paper interrogates the connection between colonial administrative policies, its urban planning strategies and contemporary conflicts in an African city. Urban design can shed light on the socio-political processes in the evolution of the city in Africa. Apart from the master-servant relationship that characterized Euro-African relationship in the built environment, colonial regularization, and rationalization of urban space foregrounded power relations between different African groups in the city. This promoted struggles for space between different African groups – indigenes and settlers. Relying on interviews, focus group discussions and archival sources, this article discusses the ways in which historical forces and colonialism, in this case, colonial administrative policies and urban planning ethos, promoted a certain spatial ordering and power relations among disparate racial, ethnic and religious groups and the grievances they invigorated underlie nascent ethno-religious conflicts in Jos. It does so because conventional explanations in the mushrooming literature on urban conflicts and violence in Nigeria have all too often presented the conflicts as though they are recent developments, inspired by the consequences of structural adjustment programme, resurgence of identity politics and the politics of local government creation.https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rppe202021-06-30hj2020Political Science

Potential impact of climate change on whiteflies and implications for the spread of vectored viruses

Published online: 31 Oct 2018Whiteflies (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) are important insect pests causing serious damage to plants and transmitting hundreds of plant viruses. Climate change is expected to influence life history and trophic interactions among plants, whiteflies and their natural enemies. Here, we review the potential impacts of climate change on whiteflies and the likely consequences for agricultural systems. This review concludes that while climatic stress tends to negatively affect life history traits, the effects differ with the tolerance of the whiteflies and the amount of stress experienced. Whiteflies also differ in their adaptability. Better adapted species will likely experience increased distribution and abundance provided their tolerance limits are not exceeded, while species with lower tolerance and adaptation limits will suffer reduced fitness, which will have overall effects on their distribution and abundance in space and time. The majority of methods used to control whiteflies will still be useful especially if complementary methods are combined for maximum efficacy. Parasitism and predation rates of whitefly natural enemies could increase with temperature within the optimum ranges of the natural enemies, although life history traits and population growth potential are generally maximised below 30 °C. Changes in climatic suitability modifying the distribution and abundance of whiteflies, and environmental suitability for plant viruses, will likely affect epidemics of viral diseases. Greater efforts are required to improve understanding of the complex effects of climate change on multi-species and multi-trophic interactions in the agro-ecological systems inhabited by whiteflies, and to use this new knowledge to develop robust and climate-smart management strategies