Integrity: A Vital Tool for the 21st Century Church Leaders in Nigeria

The increasing level of moral decadence such as rape, fraud, covetousness, sexual misconduct, character assassination, cultic activities, bloodshed, idolatry, syncretism among some church leaders in the 21st century has caused lots of reproach to the sacred order and arose varieties of questioning to the sanctity of the call of some church leaders in the present age. More worrisome also is the fact that while some church leaders in the 21st century spend more effort in theological formation, little or no attention is given to moral discipline. What should be the attitude of church leaders in matters of morality at home, society and church? Shouldn’t the church leaders be honest and consistent in all things? Pauline discourse on the qualification of church leaders in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 is used as a guide. The paper employs phenomenological and historical-critical method. The essence of the paper is to remind church leaders in the 21st-century church that a high level of moral responsibility is demanded of them if they must thrive and be a voice in the present age

Inculturation in a Post-Modern Africa: A Reflection on Salient Issues

This paper critically analyzed the concept of “Inculturation” in a post-modern Africa. Through the use of historical phen.omenological method, the paper averred that Inculturation of Christianity in a post-modern Africa is a herculean task that demands absolute caution. Hence, the paper discussed some salient issues such as the Evolutionary nature of African culture, the Unity of the Christendom and the Christian ecological concern, which should be put into serious consideration in the entire process of inculturation in Africa in order to safeguard  the essence of the gospel of Christ and to meet contemporary challenges. Keywords: Inculturation, Christianity, African cultural values, European missionaries, Post-modern Africa, African Christianity

Secondary aerospace batteries and battery materials: A bibliography, 1969 - 1974

This annotated bibliography on the subject of secondary aerospace battery materials and related physical and electrochemical processes was compiled from references to journal articles published between 1969 and 1974. A total of 332 citations are arranged in chronological order under journal titles. Indices by system and component, techniques and processes, and author are included

Physical Volcanology of Pyroclastic Tephra Deposit at Batoke Mt. Cameroon, West Africa: An Over View.

In this contribution, we report an overview of the physical attributes of pyroclastic deposit at the foot of Mt. Cameroon, West Africa. In the deposit three facies types; which are the lava flow, the lapilli and ash are common. The ash is the dominant facies and occurs irregularly in alternation with the lapilli. The most common types of depositional features include cm-dm planar beds and impact sags. We infer from field observations of facies types, clasts types and depositional features that this deposit is a phreatomagmatic fall deposit which resulted from an interaction between lava flow and surface water. The occurrence in the deposit of accretionary lapilli, impact sags, fragments of country-rock and juvenile clasts is ambiguous evidence in support of phreatomagmatic activity. The presence of a lava flow flanked by the tephra pile, the lack of accidental clasts, and the scarcity of bombs are evidence in support of a surface water-lava flow interaction.KEY WORDS: Pyroclastic Deposit, Batoke, Mt. Cameroon

An exploration of the holistic development and wellbeing of children at Clouds of Hope home KwaSani Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal.

Master of Social Science in Conflict Management and Peace Studies. University of KwaZulu-Natal. Durban, 2018.Children wellbeing is strongly linked to their holistic development and both dependent to the parental support and environmental as well as socioeconomic situation of the country. South Africa is one of the third world countries where the number of orphaned children is growing following HIV/AIDS and the socioeconomic situation of the country is deteriorating. This study explored factors that promote the holistic development of children in Clouds of Hope Home (CHH) taking into consideration the quality of their diets, cognitive growth, psychosocial wellness and the children’s participatory contribution in their wellbeing. It used a case study of the CHH on the basis that the centre hosts children who formed part of the study. A qualitative methodology was adopted in this study and data were collected through 33 in-depth interviews and one focus group discussion. Data for the study was collected at the CHH in KwaSane municipality. Data was analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. Findings in this research study suggested that children at the CHH are predominantly orphans and vulnerable. They face the day to day challenges of dealing with their situation both at school and at the centre. Their responses suggest that they are bullied at school and others face stigma and discrimination due to their HIV status that they live with. As reported during the focus group discussions, the children at CHH, indicated the need to be taken care of by a biological parent instead of a caregiver at the CHH, which unfortunately was impossible as many of the children are dominantly orphans. We conclude that rural South Africa continues to struggle with situations of orphans and vulnerable children. While their number is on increase, this research finding suggested that not much is being done for them to face their future if they failed to complete their studies. Moreover, the children in CHH had limited choices as to where to further their studies as they depended most on what the centre management could only afford

Innovations in the production of kenkey, a traditional fermented maize product of Ghana : nutritional, physical and safety aspects

Kenkey is traditionally made from a dough obtained by soaking maize (1-2 days, room temperature), milling and then fermenting naturally for 2-4 days. This thesis was aimed at improving not only the nutritional quality of kenkey, but also the production process. The traditional method for making kenkey was scaled down to a laboratory process and the microbiological, physical and nutritional quality of both maize and maize- cowpea kenkey were investigated. Natural fermentation for 48h or 72h at 30°C was sufficient to obtain properly acidified maize (pH 4.07) or maize-cowpea (pH 4.08) doughs, respectively. Lactic acid bacteria were mainly responsible for acidification. Supplementation of maize (on a replacement basis) with 20% white cowpea resulted in significant increases in protein (by 20.5%) and available lysine (by 74%) contents. This also resulted in significant increases in biogenic amines (total amines in vitro method was developed for determining the digestibility and flatulence potential of kenkey. Soaking of grains effected the highest increase in in vitro digestibility. Clostridium perfringens strain NCTC 8239 produced more gas from the solid residue left over from the in vitro digestion of maize-cowpea samples than from the resulting supernatant which contained low molecular weight oIigosaccharides, traditionally held responsible for intestinal flatus induction, suggesting that non-starch polysaccharides contribute significantly to the flatulence potential of cowpea-supplemented kenkey

Optical Properties of Strongly Coupled Plasmon-Exciton Hybrid Nanostructures

Strongly coupled plasmon-exciton hybrid nanostructures are fabricated and their optical properties are studied. The plasmonic and excitonic systems are gold nanoshells and J-aggregates, respectively. Gold nanoshells are tunable plasmonic core-shell nanoparticles which can sustain distinct dipole and quadrupole plasmons with resonant energies dependent on core-size/shell-thickness ratio. J-aggregates are organic semiconducting material with excitons that possess very high oscillator strength making them suitable for coherent interaction with other kinds of excitations. The J-aggregates are formed on the surface of the nanoshells when a water/ethanol (50:50) solution of the dye molecules (2,2'-dimethyl-8-phenyl-5,6,5',6'-dibenzothiacarbocyanine chloride) is added to an aqueous solution of nanoshells. These nanoshell-J-aggregate complexes exhibit coherent coupling between localized plasmons of the nanoshell and excitons of the molecular J-aggregates. Coherent coupling strengths of 120 meV and 100 meV have been measured for dipole and quadrupole plasmon interactions with excitons, respectively. Femtosecond time-resolved transmission spectroscopy studies are carried out in order to understand the possible sources of optical nonlinearities in the nanoshell-J-aggregate hybrid. Transient absorption of the interacting plasmon-exciton system is observed, in dramatic contrast to the photoinduced transmission of the pristine J-aggregate. An additional, transient Fano-shaped modulation within the Fano dip is also observable. The transient behavior of the J-aggregate-Au nanoshell complex is described by a combined one-exciton and two-exciton state model coupled to the nanoshell plasmon

Women as Agents of Peace and Social Development in the South-Eastern Nigeria

Contemporary gender discourse on African socio-cultural and religious issues in the past decades tend to give more accolades to the masculine rather than the feminine genders. Consequently, the male is viewed from the positive, objective, strong, intellective, dominant and determined perspective while the female is regarded as weak, passive, emotional, intuitive, childish, dependent and evil. These negative perceptions of most African male as regards to women has led to the present day women struggles for equal rights and opportunities in the educational, political, social, cultural, economic and even religious spheres. How true is the perceptions of most African male as regards to women? Are there no roles played by women in the traditional African society which distinguishes them as strong, objective and intellective? How have women contributed to the initiation of peace and peace building in the traditional African society especially in the South-Eastern Nigeria? This is the thrust of this paper. The paper examines the role of women as agents of peace and social development in the African traditional society with reference to the South-Eastern Nigeria. Having employed the descriptive analysis, the paper argued that before, during and after the colonial era, women have been agents of peace and social development in the African traditional society particularly in South-Eastern Nigeria. This is achieved through a female association known as Omurinya/Umuada. The paper strongly recommends that rather than marginalize, discriminate or oppress women based on their gender, there should be equal treatment of both men and women in all spheres of human endeavour. Key Words: Women, Peace, Patriarchy, Gender, Omurinya/Umuada DOI: 10.7176/JAAS/69-05 Publication date:November 30th 202