Democratic Renaissance and Participatory National Development in Fragile States: A Case Study

This dissertation purports to re-enlighten scholars and development practitioners about the relevance of democratic practices to the development of a nation. Using Nigeria as a case study, it examined the decadence of democracy in the country and offers a participatory national development approach in place of the existing system of governance in the country. The dissertation is organized i to eight chapters. Whereas chapter one provided the general introduction of the study, chapter two discussed the relevance of peacebuilding and development in fragile states. Chapter three examined the linkage between democratization, good governance, and national development, and chapter four examined African perspectives of democracy and development. Consequently, chapter five presented the democracy and development history of Nigeria and chapter six discussed governance, development plans, reforms and challenges in the country. Chapter seven presented the field research findings and chapter eight drew the conclusion of the study, and provided further recommendations to enhance development in Nigeria.Esta tesis doctoral pretende iluminar nuevamente eruditos acerca de la importancia de las practicas democraticas para el desarrollo de una nacion. Con Nigeria como caso de estudio, examino la decadencia de la democracia en el pais y ofrece un enfoque de desarrollo participativo nacional en lugar del sistema actual de gobernanza en el pais. La tesis esta organizada en ocho capitulos

In silico investigation of novel compounds as inhibitors of Acetylcholinesterase enzyme for the treatment of Alzheimer’s diseases

© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a “progressive, neurodegenerative disease that occurs when nerve cells in the brain die.” There are only 4 drugs approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Three (donepezil, rivastigmine, and galantamine) out of these four drugs are anticholinesterase inhibitors, while the fourth one memantine is an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor inhibitor. Currently, two immunotherapy drugs that target amyloid protein (donanemab and lecanemab) are being considered for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease at an early stage. All these drug molecules are still not the complete answer to the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. A recent report from the Office of National Statistics showed that AD is the leading cause of death in 2022. Therefore, there is an urgency to develop more drugs that can treat AD. Based on this urgency, we aim to investigate how bioactive and already approved drugs could be repurposed for inhibiting the anticholinesterase enzyme using computational studies. To achieve this, the data science tool—Python coding was compiled on Jupyter Notebook to mine bioactive compounds from the ChEMBL database. The most bioactive compounds obtained were further investigated using Molecular Operating Environment (MOE) software to carry out molecular docking and ligand analysis, and this was followed by molecular dynamics simulation production at 35 ns using GROMACS 2022.4 on Archer 2 machine. The molecular dynamic analysis was carried out using HeroMDanalysis software. Data mining of the ChEMBL database was carried out for lipase inhibitors, and this gave CHEMBL-ID 1240685, a peptide molecule, the most active compound at the time of data mining. Further literature studies gave Zoladex an FDA-approved drug for the treatment of breast cancer as another compound of interest. The in silico studies were carried out against the anticholinesterase enzyme using two FDA-approved drugs donepezil and galantamine as a template for comparing the in silico activities of the repurposed drugs. A very useful receptor for this study was PDB-1DX6, a cocrystallized galantamine inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase enzyme. The molecular docking analysis (using ligand interactions) and molecular dynamic analysis (root mean square deviation (RMSD) and root mean square fluctuation (RMSF)) showed that the two peptide molecules CHEMBL-1240685 and Zoladex gave the best binding energy and stability when compared to the FDA-approved drugs (donepezil and galantamine). Finally, further literature studies revealed that Zoladex affects memory reduction; therefore, it was dropped as a possible repurposed drug. Our research showed that CHEMBL-1240685 is a potential compound that could be investigated for the inhibition of anticholinesterase enzyme and might be another drug molecule that could be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease.Peer reviewe

Utilisation of wood residues from a cluster of sawmills at Illabuchi by inhabitants of some adjoining communities in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

A large fraction of the total volume of wood meant for the Nigerian wood–based industry is primarily converted in sawmills. This, coupled with some other factors, explain why most of the wood residues, generated during log conversion, are in these sawmills. This scenario is also the case in a cluster of sawmills in Illabuchi, located in Port Harcourt Local Government Area (LGA), Rivers State, Nigeria. It was therefore considered necessary to carry out a study where questionnaire, face–to–face interviews and personal observations were used to elicit information concerning socio–economic characteristics, types of wood residues generated by these sawmills, pattern and purpose for which they were utilised including other associated necessary information. The respondents were randomly selected through the snowball technique from two purposively selected adjoining communities to this cluster of sawmills. Outcome of the survey, after descriptive statistical analyses of the data obtained, revealed that more than 50% of the respondents in the two communities were married, mostly having a family size consisting of between 4 to 6 people as members. The respondents’ monthly income ranged from about ₦10,000 to slightly above ₦50,000, although, between 30 to 38% of the respondents declined to state what they earned monthly. Additionally, results showed that 45 to 58% of the respondents obtained the different types of wood residues from these sawmills for free with 6 to 32% of the respondents claiming to spend between ₦400 and ₦800 monthly for the same purpose. It was also shown by results that 44% of the respondents in the two communities agreed that the wood residues collected from sawmills were used for heating and cooking. Other applications are as bedding for poultry/other animals, flooring and planting of ornamental plants. The implication of the results obtained from this study is that additional applications effective in putting more of these sawmill wood residues into use should be encouraged. This is suggested and expected to be done in ways that will contribute more to local economy.Keywords: Sawmilling, log conversion, wood processing machines, wood residue

MEDIA GRAFIS SKETSA DALAM MENINGKATKAN PEMAHAMAN ISI BACAAN (Studi Eksperimen pada Anak Tunarungu Kelas D5 Di SLB B-C YKS I Majalaya Kabupaten Bandung)

Anak tunarungu adalah mereka yang mempunyai hambatan dalam pendengarannya, sehingga mengakibatkan miskinnya dalam penguasaan bahasa yang berfungsi untuk komunikasi. Pengajaran bahasa bagi anak tunarungu adalah suatu bidang pengajaran yang sangat penting peranannya, karena pengajaran bahasa adalah modalitas utama dalam mempelajari dan mengembangkan bidang pengetahuan lainnya. Salah satu mempelajari dan mengembangkan pengetahuan lainnya. Salah satu kemampuan berbahasa yang harus di kuasai anak tunarungu adalah membaca. Anak tunarungu cenderung mengfungsikan pengelihatannya (Visual) untuk memperoleh informasi ketimbang aspek yang lainnya, oleh karena anak tunarungu mengalami kesulitan dalam memahami hal-hal yang bersifat abstrak dan hal-hal yang diverbalismekan.berdasarkan hasil studi pendahuluan di lapangan yang telah dilakukan Oleh karena itu untuk membangkitkan respon siswa dalam pembelajaran membaca, guru dapat menggunakan berbagai alternatif media yang diperkirakan dapat menimbulkan respon sehingga dapat meningkatkan kemampuan memahami isi bacaan pada anak tunarungu. Berdasarkan permasalahan diatas, peneliti mencoba menerapkan salah satu media untuk membantu siswa dalam memahami isi bacaan yaitu dengan media grafis sketsa. Dalam hal ini rumusan penelitian yang diajukan adalah : Apakah Media Grafis sketsa dapat meningkatkan pemahaman isi bacaan pada anak tunarungu ?. Untuk memecahkan masalah ini digunakan metode penelitian eksperimen, dengan Single Subject Research, bedanya berupa skor kondisi baseline ke kondisi Treatment. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa Media Grafis Sketsa dapat meningkatkan pemahaman isi bacaan, hal ini berdasar pada grafis yang cenderung meningkat, seperti perolehan persentase dari baseline (A) sebesar 40,87%, Treatment mencapai 70,68%. Hal ini dapat menjawab rumusan masalah yang telah dirumuskan sebelumnya. Jelas bahwa Media Grafis Sketsa dapat meningkatkan pemahaman isi bacaan

Le domaine equatorial de l'Atlantique sud : evolution des bassins albo-santoniens du SW du fosse de la Benoue (Nigeria)

SIGLECNRS T Bordereau / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueFRFranc