Taxonomic Notes on Some Species of Genus Globigerinoides from Kafe Field, Offshore Western Niger Delta, Nigeria

The aim of the study is to identify and record the taxonomic notes on species of Genus Globigerinoides from the study area located in Kafe field of the offshore western Niger Delta area of Nigeria. 550 ditch cuttings samples were retrieved at 18.29 metres intervals from the five wells studied (Kafe-1, Kafe-2, Kafe-4, Kafe-5 and Kafe-6). The standard micropaleontological preparation technique for foraminiferal samples was employed. The foraminiferal contents were identified under binocular microscope and recorded. The species of the Genus Globigerinoides identified are Globigerinoides obliquus BOLLI, Globigerinoides extremus BOLLI and BERMUDEZ, Globigerinoides quadrilobatus D’ORBIGNY, Globigerinoides subquadrilobatus (BRÖNNIMANN), Globigerinoides trilobus REUSS and Globigerinoides sacculifer BRADY and their taxonomic notes were documented accordingly

Suitability Analysis of Compressed Earth Bricks (CEB) for Sustainable Housing Delivery in Guinea Savannah Zone of Northern Nigeria

In meeting housing delivery challenges in Nigeria, there is an urgent need to develop materials and technologies that are cost effective, eco-friendly, having good user perception and showcasing cultural heritage. The study evaluated the compressed earth bricks (CEB) and sandcrete blocks sustainability as building materials. Structured questionnaires were administered to professionals (Architects, Structural Engineers and Builders) in Kaduna State to establish the awareness level, application and sustainability qualities of CEB as compared to sandcrete blocks. Laboratory tests were conducted on six soil samples and CEB from three States of Guinea Savannah Zone of Northern Nigeria (Kaduna, Plateau and Niger) to ascertain their suitability for housing development. Findings showed low awareness, acceptability and poor user perception levels of CEB at 12% but high advantage as regard cost, environmental friendliness (energy efficient) and cultural heritage. CEB were manually and dynamically compressed at medium pressure and cured for 7 and 28 days respectively with five different cement ratios. The maximum compressive strength in 28days for Kaduna State was Damashi with 2.67 N/mm2, at 6% stabilisation; Plateau State, both Bassa and Jos South had 2.82 N/mm2 at 6% cement content and Bosso in Niger State was 4.42 N/mm2 at 8% cement content. The bricks from each of the sites indicated appropriate for use at either 2% or 4% but averagely 6% and all at 8% cement stabilisation. CEB has sustainable advantage over sandcrete blocks by approximately 70%. The paper recommends that developers, Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Governments housing development agencies commence the use of optimised CEB for sustainable large scale housing production in Nigeria

Aesthetics in African cultural performance : a critical study of Ote'gwu festival among the Igala people in Nigeria.

Master of Arts in Media, Visual Arts and Drama. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2018.The Aesthetics of African cultural performance is predominantly understood through non- African conceptualisations. Notably, such conceptualisations focus on the general analysis of the beauty of art as possessing intrinsic value, meaning and significance. As a result, the notion of African aesthetics has been misunderstood and misinterpreted, since it is subsumed under this general and in most cases Eurocentric conceptualisation. As a point of departure, the current study explores the aesthetics of African cultural performance from an African perspective. It focuses specifically on the celebration of Ote’gwu festival among the Igala people in Kogi State, Nigeria, providing a perspective of the aesthetics of African cultural performance through an analysis of this cultural festival. The study interrogates the various facets and elements of the Ote’gwu festival with the view to identify and analyse the aesthetics perception in an African cultural context. This study is qualitative in nature and adopts an exploratory research design. The research sample comprised of fourteen purposively selected interview respondents. Primary data was generated through semi-structured interviews, which was adopted as it facilitates access to deeper probing of the respondents in the effort to elicit a deeper response from the interviewees towards answering the research questions. Additionally, the researcher adopted a process of reflexivity/positionality to make explicit the researcher’s biases, values, identity and location in relation to the study and the ways these could impact the findings and analysis. Collected data were thematically analysed. The study shows that African cultural performance encapsulates various functions and values including religious, social, moral and economic values. These functions and values inform the aesthetics of African cultural performance. This shows that the aesthetics of African cultural performance have great-bearing on the life cycle of African peoples. African cultural performances are meant to appease or elicit favors from the ancestors. Also, it is evident from the study that African aesthetics does not exist as “art for art’s sake” but as “art for life’s sake”. Such performances hinge on human cultural realities and experiences of the environment. The study concludes that an Afrocentric aesthetic theory is of significant relevance in the study of African aesthetics

Sequence Stratigraphy Concepts and Applications: A Review

In this paper, a brief historical review on sequence stratigraphy from the renaissance, 1681 A.D., to the present day concepts and practices was attempted. Sequence stratigraphy integrates time and relative sea-level changes to track the migration of sedimentary facies. The strength of this technique lies in its potential to predict facies within a chronostratigraphically constrained framework of unconformity-bound depositional sequences. Sequence Stratigraphy can be used to study sedimentary rock relationships within a time-stratigraphic framework of repetitive, genetically related strata bounded by surfaces of erosion or non-deposition, or their correlative conformities. The application of sequence stratigraphy provides the potential for chronostratigraphic correlation within and among growth-faulted sub-basins, thus improving prediction of stratigraphic and areal distribution of deeply buried lowstand reservoirs. Sequence stratigraphy provides a guide to potential combination traps and the opening of a window on exploration for deep, unexpanded sub-fault reservoirs and traps, thereby enabling explorationists to properly place a given sub-basin into a petroleum system framework in a cost-effective manner. Keywords: sequence stratigraphy, systems tract, sequence boundary, biostratigraph

Synthesis of acetylated glucose esters of palm fatty acids and their properties as surfactants

The present esterification methods for producing sugar-based fatty esters are faced with the problems of low yields, the use of toxic solvents and thermal instabilities of sugars. This project reviewed and modified a number of esterification methods with the view to overcome these problems. The methods studied include direct heating, acid anhydride, enzymatic, and chemical transesterification and interesterification methods. Subsequently, a solvent-free, low temperature chemical interesterification method, yielding up to 90% product (mainly mono- and di-fatty acid substituted acetylated glucopyranoses) was developed. The method involved the heating of glucose pentaacetate (GPA), with appropriate fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) in the presence of Na-metal catalyst, under reduced pressure. The optimal reaction conditions were found to be 1:3 mole ratio of GPA and FAME, respectively; 0.5% Na-metal catalyst; reaction temperatures of 85 - 90°C; reaction time of 5 to 6 hrs, and at 20 mmHg pressure. Six acetylated glucose fatty esters (AGFE) were obtained as products using FAME of palm (PO) and palm kernel (PKO) fatty acids, C6 to CIO (C6110) mixed fatty acids, and oleic and stearic fatty acids. The reactions leading to the fonnation of the mono- and di-substituted acetylated glucose fatty esters were found to follow zero-order kinetics. Results from fatty-acyl group selectivity studies show that the longer-chain fatty acyl groups were generally preferred to the shorter chain-lengths. A novel nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic method for determining the molecular structures of polyacetylated glucose fatty esters was developed in the course of this work. Using heteronuclear multiple bond correlation (HMBC) technique and the fatty acyl substituent-induced changes (SCS) in the BC-chemical shifts of the carbonyl-carbon atoms, the molecular structures of the mono- and disubstituted products were established as I-O-fatty acyl 2,3,4,6-acetyl a-Dglucopyranose and 1, 6-0-fatty acyI2,3,4-acetyl a-D-glucopyranose, respectively. The surface activity properties of the products were studied. AGFE was not soluble in water due to the lack of free -OH groups in the molecular structure, thus limiting the hydrophilic character of the pyranosyl head groups. Hydrophile-lipophile balance (HLB) experiments showed that AGFE from stearic acid and PKO were potential water-in-oil (W/O) emulsifiers while AGFE from PKO, PO and oleic acid showed moderate oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion stabilization. Cytotoxic experiments involving cancerous (HT -29 colon carcinoma and CEM-SS, T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia) and normal (3T3 normal mouse fibroblast) cell lines have shown that AGFE were non-cytotoxic towards cancer and normal cell lines The results of the antimicrobial experiments showed that the di-subsituted PNO product (PKO-2) to have a moderate activity against P. aeruginosa with inhibition zone diameter of 14.0mm and weakly active against S. auerus, B. subtilis 828 and 829. AGFE from PKO (PKO-l) was weakly active against P. aeruginosa with inhibition zone diameter of9.0mm. These compounds can thus perform the dual role as emulsifiers and preservatives

A Modified UK Real Value/Short-Cut DCF Model for the Valuation of a Nigerian Sub-Leased Commercial Property

A UK real value/short-cut DCF model that addresses the valuation of geared profit rents generated by sub-let commercial investment properties especially in climes with nationalized land policy has been elusive. This study examines the modification of the extant UK real value/short-cut DCF model for the valuation of head-leased occupancy rights with fixed and non-revisable ground rents pursuant to the provisions of the Nigeria Land Use Act. The model is developed by blending the inputs of the modified rational model with that of the Crosby's real value/short-cut DCF model leading to a valuation model that appears simplified compared to the existing UK contemporary value models. The gearing effect for the hypothetical case of sub-let head-lease occupancy right in Nigeria is manifested as having a diminishing impact of fixed ground rent on profit rent calculation. For the valuation case study involving this hypothetical head-leased occupancy right in Nigeria, it was found that the modified UK real value/short-cut DCF model produced valuation that is identical to those churned out from the full DCF, modified rational, and Crosby's real value/short-cut DCF models. For the same hypothetical case study, less than 1% difference is observed between valuations from the all risks real yield (ARRY) model, which evolved in New Zealand and the valuation produced from the modified UK real value/short-cut DCF model, thereby validating all methods against each other. In consonance with the International Valuation Standards pertaining to income valuation approach, a sustained pedagogy of emerging real value models alongside the extant nominal valuation models is suggested as a way forward. Nevertheless, the modified UK real value/short-cut DCF model is recommended as an alternative to the extant variants of real value and explicit DCF techniques for the valuation of sub-let head-lease occupancy rights with fixed/non-revisable ground rents payable especially in climes with nationalized land policy

The Church as a theocentric community: with special reference to certain aspects of traditional African ideas of God and man

This thesis suggests as well as expands the idea that the Church is a theocentric Community - a Community of re-created persons whose lives are to be centered on the only Living God, who as God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit brought the Community into existence. This way of looking at the nature of the Church differs from the over-Christocentric approach which tends to identify the Church exclusively with one member of the Godhead. At the same time, to regard the Church in an African context as a theocentric Community is an attempt to develop a specifically African Christian under¬ standing of the Church in the hope that the type of ecclesiology to emerge from the study will be relevant and intelligible to an African convert.It is the contention of this thesis that an enquiry into the nature of the Church will have to take into consideration the doctrines of God and man. If such a doctrine of the Church is to be understood by a given people and is to be responsive to their needs, then their traditional notions of God and man should not be ignored, no matter how distorted these may be.The above position dictates the approach which is taken in the develop¬ ment of this thesis. The first chapter, which is the General Introduction to the Study, deals with some of the factors which are behind the presentday interest in ecclesiology. This chapter also treats briefly the nature of African Christian theology. This background material shows the need for an African Christian ecclesiology.The second chapter of the thesis shows certain aspects of traditional African (with special reference to traditional Nigerian) ideas of God and man which are considered helpful in developing a theocentric model of the Church.The third chapter is devoted to the development of the idea that the Church is a theocentric Community, and this is preceded by a brief discus¬ sion of the Biblical basis of the theocentric model which underlines the fact that the model is first and foremost rooted in the Biblical doctrines of God and man.The fourth chapter is the summary and the conclusion of the study.This thesis maintains that the theocentric model of the Church rules out any exclusive identification of the Church with one member of the Godhead, because the model identifies the Church with the only God who exists, the one who has revealed himself as God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The creation, the sustenance, and the consummation of the Church is always an act of one God who is the Triune God. Correspondingly, the Church is called to live its God-given life to the glory of the same God who alone is the Living God. The theocentric model assists the African convert to feel at home spiritually in the Church because the model identifies the origin of the Church with the same God whom the African knows in his traditional religions as the Supreme God who made the heavens and the earth, the ultimate sustainer of all that he has created

News Frame Patterns: An Evaluation of Newspaper Coverage of Boko Haram Attacks in Nigeria

This study investigates the newspaper coverage of Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria, with a view to identifying the patterns of frames in the stories published. A total of 120 editions of four selected newspapers were analyzed. Findings show that The Nation newspaper published more than other titles - Daily Trust, The Guardian and ThisDay - across all genres. Straight news was predominant. The ineffective response of the government, in terms of its uncompromising behavior and inability to contain the insurgency, was widely reported. Findings also show that the newspapers dwelt so much inflammatorily on the impact of attacks by the sect and de-emphasized messages that could help end the violence. Nigerian newspapers should do more in terms of investigating and interpreting issues in a crisis instead of straight news reporting that lacks control. If they agree with this recommendation, framing patterns that bring solution to the problem, rather than stoke it, become easier to create

News Frame Patterns: An Evaluation of Newspaper Coverage of Boko Haram Attacks in Nigeria

This study investigates the newspaper coverage of Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria, with a view to identifying the patterns of frames in the stories published. A total of 120 editions of four selected newspapers were analyzed. Findings show that The Nation newspaper published more than other titles - Daily Trust, The Guardian and ThisDay - across all genres. Straight news was predominant. The ineffective response of the government, in terms of its uncompromising behavior and inability to contain the insurgency, was widely reported. Findings also show that the newspapers dwelt so much inflammatorily on the impact of attacks by the sect and de-emphasized messages that could help end the violence. Nigerian newspapers should do more in terms of investigating and interpreting issues in a crisis instead of straight news reporting that lacks control. If they agree with this recommendation, framing patterns that bring solution to the problem, rather than stoke it, become easier to create