Optimal pricing and capacity choice for a public service under risk of interruption

We develop rules for pricing and capacity choice for an interruptible service that recognise the interdependence between consumers' perceptions of system reliability and their market behaviour. Consumers post ex ante demands, based on their expectations on aggregate demand. Posted demands are met if ex post supply capacity is sufficient. However, if supply is inadequate all ex ante demands are proportionally interrupted. Consumers' expectations of aggregate demand are assumed to be rational. Under reasonable values for the consumer's degrees of relative risk aversion and prudence, demand is decreasing in supply reliability. We derive operational expressions for the optimal pricing rule and the capacity expansion rule. We show that the optimal price under uncertainty consists of the optimal price under certainty plus a markup that positively depends on the degrees of relative risk aversion, relative prudence and system reliability. We also show that any reliability enhancing investment - though lowering the operating surplus of the public utility - is socially desirable as long as it covers the cost of investment.D11, D24, D45, H42, Q25

Indigenous Knowledge and Africa’s Quest for Sustainable Development

In Africa’s quest for sustainable development, it is important to consider the various factors that make African societies unique and different from others. As a people with special interests, beliefs, and social and political organizations which are culturally transient, Africa cannot develop outside the scope of its cultural ties. Since the gap between indigenous or cultural knowledge and sustainable development is so closely knitted, no society can progress by neglecting its values and bonds. Every development comes with the need to improve the existing condition, and where there is an absolute lack of knowledge of the existing condition of things, every effort directed toward the development of such a society will inevitably fail because the system will only be working on a trial-and-error basis. Hence, Africa’s sustainable development must be construed within the ambience of African society taking cognizance of her communal way of life. In this paper, therefore, we shall argue that the major problem for the technological, economic, social, and political backwardness of Africa lies in her attempt to attain sustainable development without recourse to its rich cultural knowledge. The paper adopts both the speculative and analytic methods of philosophical investigation to affirm the position that Africa must look inward in her quest to attain sustainable development

Elements of Machiavenialism and Situationism in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies

This essay examines the nature of man within the scope of situational philosophy. It explores the writing of William Golding to subvert intellectual error on racism. Besides, it challenges any claim to absolute moral refinement since existential situation set the stage for the unfolding of man. The radical transformation of Jack Merridew and the situational response of Ralph are used as philosophical base to explain the dynamism of man in the face of changing situation. However, the analysis of some scholars on the black race reveals a fundamental philosophy that misses many fundamental points. This paper therefore advocates an incursion into appropriate political framework and dismissal of race based supremacist philosophy

Discrete wavelet packet transform for electroencephalogram based valence-arousal emotion recognition

Electroencephalogram (EEG) based emotion recognition has received considerable attention as it is a non-invasive method of acquiring physiological signals from the brain and it could directly reflect emotional states. However, the challenging issues regarding EEG-based emotional state recognition is that it requires well-designed methods and algorithms to extract necessary features from the complex, chaotic, and multichannel EEG signal in order to achieve optimum classification performance. The aim of this study is to discover the feature extraction method and the combination of electrode channels that optimally implements EEG-based valencearousal emotion recognition. Based on this, two emotion recognition experiments were performed to classify human emotional states into high/low valence or high/low arousal. The first experiment was aimed to evaluate the performance of Discrete Wavelet Packet Transform (DWPT) as a feature extraction method. The second experiment was aimed at identifying the combination of electrode channels that optimally recognize emotions based on the valence-arousal model in EEG emotion recognition. In order to evaluate the results of this study, a benchmark EEG dataset was used to implement the emotion classification. In the first experiment, the entropy features of the theta, alpha, beta, and gamma bands through the 10 EEG channels Fp1, Fp2, F3, F4, T7, T8, P3, P4, O1, and O2 were extracted using DWPT and Radial Basis Function-Support Vector Machine (RBF-SVM) was used as the classifier. In the second experiment, the classification experiments were repeated using the 4 EEG frontal channels Fp1, Fp2, F3, and F4. The result of the first experiment showed that entropy features extracted using DWPT are better than bandpower features. While the result of the second classification experiment shows that the combination of the 4 frontal channels is more significant than the combination of the 10 channel

Beyond Westernization: Culture and the Question of Development in Africa

The question of development is not yet settled in Africa. Though there are numerous approaches and theories on this issue yet the cultural dimension is not properly explored. Explicitly, globalization and modernization contain a lot, but not the final answer to the question of development. Modernization does not mean total neglect of indigenous knowledge. Besides, westernization is not modernization but one of the key factors to facilitate it. This paper examines the necessity of culture in the development of Africa. In line with this, the views of some Japanese scholars and Africans are carefully evaluated

Economic And Environmental Impact Assessment Of Construction And Demolition Waste Recycling And Reuse Using LCA And MCDA Management Tools

Reuse and recycling of waste from construction and demolition (C&D) is problematic because the markets for secondary materials have not yet been fully integrated. Decisions regarding the reuse and recycling of building waste materials, however, are beneficial economically to the construction industry, in addition to having environmental and social responsibility outcomes. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the economic and environmental benefits of recycling and reuse of C&D waste. It explores how impact categories such as economic and environmental impact can be used to develop a decision-support framework for recycling and reusing building waste. Two case studies of real-life Demolition and New Build projects are selected to demonstrate how waste inventory data can be collected and adopted to support the decision-making process. A thorough review of the available literature revealed a holistic view of C&D waste management and its related economic and environmental impacts. The literature review helped establish a direction for what is needed to develop a decision-support framework. Two management tools (LCA and MCDA) were identified as possible tools needed to complete the decision-support framework. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) (an aspect of MCDA) were adopted to construct the framework, which was to be applied to the case study’s waste management system. The combination of these two management tools enables the full development of a framework that can measure both the economic and environmental impact of the current waste management system, as well as act as a tool for supporting decisions regarding different policy alternatives. Thus, the framework was applied to the Demolition and New Build case studies, and later validated for consistency. The framework delivered a set of positive results that could be useful for those making decisions on policy alternatives. Both the decision making process and waste management policy were selected and facilitated by the new framework. Decision makers' preferences on policy alternatives were ranked as final outcomes, and favoured reducing, recycling and reusing opportunities in C&D waste management. The result depicts an approach that, compared to current waste management practices, demonstrates a strong acceptability in terms of the environment and cost-effectiveness. Thus, the key findings discussed here provide an interesting foundation for future research, which will focus more on other impacts, such as the social and policy impacts of recycling and reusing C&D waste

Economic And Environmental Impact Assessment Of Construction And Demolition Waste Recycling And Reuse Using LCA And MCDA Management Tools

Reuse and recycling of waste from construction and demolition (C&D) is problematic because the markets for secondary materials have not yet been fully integrated. Decisions regarding the reuse and recycling of building waste materials, however, are beneficial economically to the construction industry, in addition to having environmental and social responsibility outcomes. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the economic and environmental benefits of recycling and reuse of C&D waste. It explores how impact categories such as economic and environmental impact can be used to develop a decision-support framework for recycling and reusing building waste. Two case studies of real-life Demolition and New Build projects are selected to demonstrate how waste inventory data can be collected and adopted to support the decision-making process. A thorough review of the available literature revealed a holistic view of C&D waste management and its related economic and environmental impacts. The literature review helped establish a direction for what is needed to develop a decision-support framework. Two management tools (LCA and MCDA) were identified as possible tools needed to complete the decision-support framework. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) (an aspect of MCDA) were adopted to construct the framework, which was to be applied to the case study’s waste management system. The combination of these two management tools enables the full development of a framework that can measure both the economic and environmental impact of the current waste management system, as well as act as a tool for supporting decisions regarding different policy alternatives. Thus, the framework was applied to the Demolition and New Build case studies, and later validated for consistency. The framework delivered a set of positive results that could be useful for those making decisions on policy alternatives. Both the decision making process and waste management policy were selected and facilitated by the new framework. Decision makers' preferences on policy alternatives were ranked as final outcomes, and favoured reducing, recycling and reusing opportunities in C&D waste management. The result depicts an approach that, compared to current waste management practices, demonstrates a strong acceptability in terms of the environment and cost-effectiveness. Thus, the key findings discussed here provide an interesting foundation for future research, which will focus more on other impacts, such as the social and policy impacts of recycling and reusing C&D waste

Integration Of Automobile Technological Developments Into Nigeria Technical College Motor Vehicle Mechanics Work Curriculum

In Nigeria, technical colleges produce craftsmen for various sectors of the economy and are regarded as the principal vocational institutions. It offers various mechanical trades among is Motor Vehicle Mechanics (MVM). The program of Motor Vehicle Mechanics trade in Nigeria technical colleges is designed to produce competent auto-mechanics craftsmen for Nigeria technological and industrial development. According to National Board for Technical Education (NBTE, 2001), auto-mechanics craftsmen are expected to test, diagnose, service and completely repair any fault on the motor vehicle to the manufacturer’s specification. For this to be achieved, a National curriculum is adopted in all technical colleges accredited by the NBTE

Effect Of Simulation On Technical College Auto-mechanics Trade Students Academic Achievement In Lagos State Nigeria.

A flood of emails from various list serves filled our in-boxes with the shocking news: One of the world’s most prominent African American scholars, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. of Harvard University, had been accused of breaking into his own home. After America’s psychological honeymoon prompted by election of the first President of African descent, some were forced to grapple with questions of whether racism still exists. The aforementioned incident answers these inquiries with a resounding, “Yes.” Examples of accounts of continued racial prejudice and discrimination suggest the need for support systems and advocacy groups such as minority academic and professional organizations to level the social playing field

Total quality management, employee commitment and competitive advantage in Nigerian tertiary institutions. A study of the University of Lagos

[EN] The quality of education offered by the tertiary institutions in Nigeria in recent times has critically degenerated. Unfortunately, this has led to the unprecedented rise in the poor quality of Nigerian graduates which contributes to the very alarming high rate of unemployment in the country. This article therefore examines the relationship between total quality management (TQM), employee commitment and competitive advantage among tertiary institutions in Lagos State with a particular focus on the University of Lagos, using a survey research design with a random selection of 350 respondents from a population of 2,047 staff strength across the 11 faculties in the university. The data used for this article were derived from a systematic review of the relevant literature and a structured questionnaire. The data obtained from the questionnaire was subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics. 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