Global Financial and Macroeconomic Fluctuations: Implications for African Economic Development

In the light of dampening effects of the global financial melt-down, the paper examines the trends in financial flows, particularly foreign direct investment (FDI) and the possible effects of the global financial crisis and macroeconomic fluctuations on economic development in Africa. The paper employs simple panel data approach which links panel data methodology that allows for individual heterogeneity, while the method of estimation is the Fixed and Random Effects regression. The method of panel VAR is also used in the paper with a view to capturing the dynamic effects of FDI inflows for policy analysis using the impulse response functions. The number of countries (27) included in the paper and the period of estimation, 1987-2007, are informed by data availability. With some suggestions on the direction of policy to stimulate increased financial flows, the paper opines that there is the need for comparative dynamics of African economies in order to return to the path of sustainable growth and development

Pentecostalism and Charismatic Movements in Nigeria: Factors of Growth and Inherent Challenges

Since about 1986, i.e. in the past 46 years and within our own generation, we have witnessed certain fundamental changes in the way Christianity is perceived and practiced in Nigeria, and in other parts ofWest Africa. The most substantial change is associated with a kind of spirituality brought into existence by the rise of Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. This new religious effervescence is part of what is generally referred to as the Charismatic Renewal, a revivalist movement within the Christian church with global dimension. From its old form as a sectarian religion in Africa in the early twentieth century, by the 1990s Pentecostalism has moved into the public domain to become a global religion, and has thus attracted the attention of the media, the generality of Christians and non-Christians and scholars of religion. This new Christianity was at first identified with young men and women who labelled themselves as pastors and evangelists despite lacking any pastoral or theological training. Nevertheless, they actively engaged other Christians and non-Christians, exhorting them to repentance from all sins, to receive Jesus Christ as their saviour and thus become born again. This old evangelical message received a new impetus as the young puritan preachers, as van Dijk, a Dutch scholar called them, went about in public places, preaching and praying to deliver people from every kind of malevolent spiritual forces.

United States poultry exports to the European Community : the impact of the 1992 greater economic harmonization

Profitability of U.S. poultry industry is affected by developments in the world markets, although in the past it has appeared to be insulated. The European Community (EC) is in the process of creating a single, unified European market in 1992. This economic integration will have a significant impact on poultry producers both inside and outside the EC, especially due to the adoption of new standards and the removal of Monetary Compensatory Amounts (MCAs). The objective of this study is to describe the current efforts to enhance economic integration within the European Community and to analyze how its implementation may affect the U.S. poultry industry. This was accomplished by estimating the demand for U.S. poultry in the five largest EC importing nations which accounted for 54 percent of total value of U.S. poultry exports to the EC, and the rest of the EC as an aggregated group. The sum of their poultry demand was incorporated in a U.S. export supply function to determine the effect of changes in EC demand on the U.S. export price. The results indicate that the EC\u27s domestic poultry prices EC have a greater impact on poultry exports than the U.S. export price. The results suggest that harmonization of prices that lead to a 1 percent fall in poultry prices will result in a 1.6 to 2.7 percent fall in the quantity of U.S. poultry demanded. However, U.S. export prices are not expected to be greatly affected

Bioinformatics and physicochemical properties of CzcE protein in Bacteria

ArticleThis study investigated the bioinformatics of heavy metal resistance protein. Mega 6 was used to construct the divergence time and phylogenetic analysis of CzeC and Protparam was used to determine the amino acids, pI and Gravy of CzcE from different bacteria. The results showed the actual bacteria that contain the CzcE protein which can be useful for researchers that wants to work on this protein

Analysis of the Electronic Properties of All-electroplated ZnS, CdS and CdTe Graded Bandgap Photovoltaic Device Configuration

All-electrodeposited ZnS, CdS and CdTe thin layers have been incorporated in a graded bandgap solar cell structure of glass/FTO/n-ZnS/n-CdS/n-CdTe/Au have been fabricated and an average conversion efficiency of 14.18% was achieved under AM1.5 illuminated condition. Based on former work in which 10% conversion efficiency was reported, optimisation has been made to the semiconductor layers, precursors, thicknesses and the post-growth treatment. These results demonstrate the advantages of multi-layer graded bandgap device configuration and the inclusion of gallium based post-growth treatment (CdCl2+Ga2(SO4)3) on the CdS/CdTe-based device structure. The fabricated devices were characterised using both current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) techniques. Under dark I-V condition, a rectification factor (R.F.) of 104.8, ideality factor (n) of 1.60 and a barrier height (ϕb) >0.82 eV were observed. Under AM1.5 illuminated I-V condition, short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 34.08 mAcm-2, open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 730 mV, fill-factor (FF) of 0.57 and conversion efficiency of 14.18% were observed. Under dark C-V condition, doping density (ND) of 7.79×1014 cm-3 and a depletion width (W) of 1092 nm were achieved. In addition, the work demonstrates the capability of two-electrode system as a simplification to the conventional three-electrode system in the electrodeposition of semiconductors

Unravelling complex nature of CdS/CdTe based thin film solar cells

Thin film solar cells based on CdS/CdTe hetero- structure has shown a drastic improvement changing from 16.5 to 22.1% efficiency during a short period of time from ~2013 to ~2016. This has happened in the industrial environment and the open research in this field has stagnated over a period of two decades prior to ~2013. Most of the issues of this hetero-structure were not clear to the photovoltaic (PV) community and research efforts should be directed to unravel its complex nature. Issues related to materials, post-growth treatment, chemical etching prior to metallisation and associated device physics are the main areas needing deeper understanding in order to further develop this device. After a comprehensive research programme in both academia and in industry on these materials, surfaces and interfaces and fully fabricated devices over a period of over three decades by the main author, the current knowledge as understood today, on all above mentioned complex issues are presented in this paper. Full understanding of this structure will enable PV developers to further improve the conversion efficiency beyond 22.1% for CdS/CdTe based solar cells

Factors affecting electroplated semiconductor material properties: The case study of deposition temperature on cadmium telluride

Electrodeposition of cadmium telluride (CdTe) on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) using two electrode configurations was successfully achieved with the main focus on the growth temperature. The electroplating temperatures explored ranged between 55 and 85 °C for aqueous electrolytes containing 1.5 M cadmium nitrate tetrahydrate (Cd(NO3)2·4H2O) and 0.002 M tellurium oxide (TeO2). The ensuing CdTe thin-films were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis spectrophotometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell measurements. The electroplated CdTe thin-films exhibit a dominant (111) CdTe cubic structure, while the crystallite size increases with the increase in the electroplating temperature. The dislocation density and the number of crystallites per unit area decrease with increasing growth temperature. The optical characterization depicts that the CdTe samples show comparable absorbance and a resulting bandgap of 1.51 ± 0.03 eV for as-deposited CdTe layers. A marginal increase in the bandgap and reduction in the absorption edge slope towards lower deposition temperatures were also revealed. The annealed CdTe thin-films showed improvement in the energy bandgap as it tends towards 1.45 eV while retaining the aforementioned absorption edge slope trend. Scanning electron microscopy shows that the underlying FTO layers are well covered with increasing grain size observable relative to the increase in the deposition temperature. The energy dispersive X-ray analyses show an alteration in the Te/Cd relative to the deposition temperature. Higher Te ratio with respect to Cd was revealed at deposition temperature lower than 85 °C. The photoelectrochemical cell study shows that both p- and n-type CdTe can be electroplated and that deposition temperatures below 85 °C at 1400 mV results in p-type CdTe layers