Empirical Analysis of Vertical Imbalance of Revenue Distribution in Nigeria between: 1985-2010.

In contemporary society, the surviving economy depends on the volume of tax response of her citizenry as it helps in frastructural development which in turns contributes to economic development in the country. Against this background, the paper examined the empirical analysis of vertical imbalance of revenue distribution in Nigeria between the periods of 1985 to 2010. Data sourced from the CBN and NBS Statistical Bulletin were subjected to empirical analysis and result showed that the findings confirmed an evidence of negative and inversely relationship between VIMBs and UNED while VIMBf  indicated direct and positive relationship with UNED in Nigeria. This is suggestively true because federal has very wide coverage of revenue generation than the state government. In term of predicative capability of cases within the years of study, the state can predict 84 percent 21 out of 25 cases while the federal predict only 80 percent 20 out of 25 cases of UNED. However, VIMBs is not statistically significance while VIMBf is significant based in the overall parameter comparison with the UNED. Although both VIMBs and VIMBf are respectively significance in terms of the model estimates result. The VIMBf is fund to have the highest strength of explaining the variation in UNED by 7.7 percent than the VIMBs of only 1.7 per cent.  It is therefore wise to recommended that effort should be made by the National Economic Commission, National Planning Commission and Policy Makers to regulate and restructure the Federal character commission policy of development to reflect true implementation and federalism in governance. Keywords: Vertical Imbalance, Revenue, Gretl, Policy, Uneven Development, Dummy variables

THERMAL EXPANSION BEHAVIOR OF THE Ba0.2Sr0.8Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ (BSCF) WITH Sm0.2Ce0.8O1.9

Nanostructured perovskite oxides of Ba0.2Sr0.8Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ (BSCF) were synthesized through the co-precipitation method. The thermal decomposition, phase formation and thermal expansion behavior of BSCF were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and dilatometry, respectively. XRD peaks were indexed to a cubic perovskite structure with a Pm3m (221) space group. All the combined oxides produced the desired perovskite-phase BSCF. The microstructures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The TEM analysis showed that BSCF powders had uniform nanoparticle sizes and high homogeneity. The cross-sectional SEM micrograph of BSCF exhibited a continuous and no delaminated layer from the electrolyte-supported cell. The thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) of BSCF was 16.2×10-6 K-1 at a temperature range of 600°C to 800°C. Additional experiments showed that the TEC of BSCF is comparable to that of Sm0.2Ce0.8O1.9 (SDC) within the same temperature range. The results demonstrate that BSFC is a promising cathode material for intermediate-temperature solid-oxide fuel cells

Pastoralist knowledge of sheep and goat disease and implications for peste des petits ruminants virus control in the Afar Region of Ethiopia

Pastoralist areas of Ethiopia are vulnerable to drought, causing livelihood loss and famine. One approach to increasing pastoralist resilience is the control of livestock disease, but there is limited information from pastoralist areas to inform control strategies. This study aimed to explore pastoralist concepts of small ruminant disease and implications for infectious disease surveillance and control in the pastoralist Afar Region. During 2013–14, qualitative and quantitative methods were applied in two villages of one district in the mid-west of the region. Semi-structured group interviews, incorporating participatory tools, explored pastoralist knowledge of small ruminant diseases and their impact. These were followed by multiple visits in different seasons to 70 households for semi-structured and informal interviews, observation of management practices, clinical examinations, and weekly questionnaires of mortality and morbidity. Thematic analysis was applied to interview transcripts and field notes, and descriptive statistical analysis to quantitative data. Afar concepts of disease causation, terminology and treatment were predominantly naturalistic, related to observable signs and physical causes, rather than personalistic factors (misfortune due to magical or spiritual agents). Disease occurrence was associated with malnutrition and adverse weather, and disease spread with contact between animals during grazing, watering and migration. Disease occurrence varied by season with most syndromes increasing in frequency during the dry season. Names for disease syndromes were related to the main clinical sign or body part affected; 70 terms were recorded for respiratory syndromes, diarrhoea, sheep and goat pox, lameness, skin diseases, ectoparasites, urinary and neurological syndromes and abortion. Some syndromes with pathognomonic signs could be linked to biomedical diagnoses but most were non-specific with several possible diagnoses. The syndromes causing greatest impact were diarrhoea and respiratory disease, due to mortality, reduced milk production, weight loss, abortion, weak offspring and reduced market value. Afar applied a range of traditional methods and modern medicines to prevent or treat disease, based on livestock keeper knowledge, advice of local specialists and occasionally advice from district veterinarians or animal health workers. In relation to surveillance for peste des petits ruminants (PPR), several terms were used for PPR-like syndromes, depending on the predominance of respiratory or diarrhoea signs. Therefore, whenever these terms are encountered during surveillance, the associated disease events should be fully investigated and samples collected for laboratory confirmation. The Afar naturalistic concepts of disease parallel biomedical concepts and provide a good foundation for communication between veterinarians and pastoralists in relation to PPR surveillance and control measures

Hydraulic conductivity of compacted granite residual soil mixed with Palm Oil Fuel Ash in landfill application

Laboratory tests were carried out on compacted granite residual soil treated with 0 to 15% Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA), with a view to evaluate its hydraulic conductivity for its application in landfilling. The Soil–POFA mixtures were compacted using both Standard and Modified Proctors compactive efforts at 2% dry of Optimum Moulding water Content (−2%), at Optimum Moulding water Content (0%), at 2 and 4% on the wet side of Optimum Moulding water Content (+2 and +4%). The samples were permeated with water and the effect of moulding water content; compactive effort and POFA content were examined. The samples that met the minimum threshold of 1 × 10−9 m/s were used in plotting the acceptable zones criterion at various POFA mixtures. The results gave indications of reduction in the hydraulic conductivity values, with increase in compactive efforts, moulding water content and POFA content up to about 10%. This was the most suitable soil–POFA mixture for the hydraulic application

Parallel Stochastic Evolution Algorithms for Constrained Multiobjective Optimization

Stochastic evolution (StocE) is an evolutionary metaheuristic that has shown to achieve better solution qualities and runtimes when compared to some other well established stochastic metaheuristics. However, unlike these metaheuristics, parallelization of StocE has not been explored before. In this paper, we discuss a comprehensive set of parallel strategies for StocE using a constrained multiobjective VLSI cell placement as an optimization problem. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is demonstrated by comparing its results with results of parallel SA algorithms on the same optimization problem

Parallel Stochastic Evolution Algorithms for Constrained Multiobjective Optimization

Stochastic evolution (StocE) is an evolutionary metaheuristic that has shown to achieve better solution qualities and runtimes when compared to some other well established stochastic metaheuristics. However, unlike these metaheuristics, parallelization of StocE has not been explored before. In this paper, we discuss a comprehensive set of parallel strategies for StocE using a constrained multiobjective VLSI cell placement as an optimization problem. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is demonstrated by comparing its results with results of parallel SA algorithms on the same optimization problem

Improved frequency table’s measures of skewness and kurtosis with application to weather data

The statistic” Midpoint” used as a magnitude of observations in each class of a frequency table leads to biased estimates of the two measures of shape of a distribution, skewness, and kurtosis. This research proposed three new statistics, the mean, median, and midrange of observations in each class instead of the midpoint. Simulation results using samples from normal, uniform, exponential distributions, and the real Istanbul weather data indicated that measures that used the mean as a representative of observations in each class outperformed the other measures of skewness and kurtosis

Applying a mixed-method approach to improve on-the-job learning and job satisfaction in a cohort of interns at a university hospital

Introduction: Job satisfaction is vital for the optimal functioning of medical practitioners. Herein, we report our experience of restructuring the internship program by identifying the gaps, developing, implementing strategies to overcome gaps and sharing the results of the pre-implementation and post-implementation audit, as an example for establishing a system for improving intern\u27s work-based learning and satisfaction in a university hospital setting.Methods: Using Kern\u27s six-step instructional model, a prospective mixed-method study was conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital. In phase 1 (2013) gaps were identified by evaluating various aspects of the internship program. Strategies were developed and implemented to overcome the identified gaps. In phase 2 (2014-2016) the impact of these developmental strategies was assessed.Results: A total of 65 interns, 30 residents, and 22 faculty members participated in phase I, while 71 interns participated in phase II. The reformation of orientation sessions, including practical exposure and content of sessions, opportunities to enhance hands-on experience and supervision in inpatient areas, operating rooms, supervision by fellows, supervision for hands-on procedures, career counseling, and mentorship, led to significant improvement in satisfaction. It was identified that the lack of hands-on opportunities can be overcome by surgical skills-based workshops. These reforms led to an overall rise in intern satisfaction (50% vs 75.4%, p=0.02).Conclusion: Periodic restructuring of an existing program helps to improve the work-based learning experience and overall satisfaction among interns. This not only maximizes learning but also eases interns into their postgraduate life and workload subsequently enabling them to become more competent and well-rounded health practitioners

A Class of Koszul Algebra and Some Homological Invariants through Circulant Matrices and Cycles

Recent advances in graph theory, linear algebra, and commutative algebra render us to tackle problems in one bough of mathematics with assistance and guidance from others. We will elaborate foremost and conceptually fathomless homological invariants inextricably linked with circulant matrices and cycles through various path lengths in this article, as well as a class of Koszul algebra, which portrays combinatorial correlation, in the end.Scopu

Assessment of Knowledge and Practice of Various Eye Diseases in Sulaimani: A Descriptive Study

Knowledge and practice of public, especially patients about eye diseases are important to reduce magnitude of human blindness. Vision and sight are very essential because they allow us to connect to each other’s. In accordance to the recently published data; the estimation of 253 million people lives with vision impairment, 36 million are blind and 217 million suffer from moderate to severe vision impairment. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Shahid Dr. Aso Hospital in Sulaimani city-Iraq, from April to August 2017 by face-to-face interview through close ended questionnaire for data collecting. All data were analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22.0 software. P-value of < 0.05 was considered as a statistically significant. A total of 430 patients were randomly chosen to participate in the study. They were 254 (59.1%) males and 176 (40.9%) females. 76.7% of respondents was worrying about vision loss, 0.7% was worrying about hair loss. Of the participants, 32.8% was with a good knowledge level and 40.5% was with a poor knowledge level, as well as 3.1% was in a good practice and 58.8% was in a poor practice level. Female knowledge mean score was 9.53±4.96 and male knowledge mean score was 8.42±5.45, the practice mean score of males was 4.33±1.96 and mean practice score of females was 4.13±1.93. The study data indicate the worrying of participates about vision loss is in the highest proportion and the awareness and practice of patients about eye diseases is unsatisfactory. Health education campaigns are needed to improve personal awareness about vision related problems and for better eye health