Conceptualizing ethnicity and nation building in Malaysia: A lesson from Nigeria

Conflict of ethnic origin keep presenting its ugly consequences to most of the developing and developed societies, with no much lessons learned. This ethnic conflicts usually starts with a mere complain or grievance that is most of the time ignored, this minor issues if not well tackled could metamorphosed into a widespread genocides, killings, maiming, destruction of valuable properties or in a form of social vices, like addiction, armed robbery, prostitution and host of other vices. Hence this paper presents a catalogue of the various ethnic confl icts that occurred in Nigeria from 1999-2002, immediately after the coming up of a democratically elected government in the country. The paper concluded that, the unassuming right provided by the Nigeria democracy might have contributed to the escalation of the conflicts, that has direct relationship with ethnicity. It also presumed that, the conflicts may also be associated with long military dictatorship in the country, which likely socialised the citizens to learn the act of intolerance, hostility and the act of violence. The lessons drawn from Nigeria experience were married with the recent happening in Malaysia, so that it will serve as a lesson to Malaysia to act fast not to allow its issue degenerates to an uncontrollable stage. This paper, therefore, make use of documented records from both official documents and eyewitnesses records to generates all its data and argument for this presentation. “Tribalism is the bane of independent Africa...There are 2,000 language Groups of which 50 are prominent, and countless more subdivisions of tribe and clan.This complex heritage has been only slightly eroded by inter-marriage and the drift to the cities. Nor have the eff orts of African leaders to impose a national identity on their diverse peoples, assembled within borders inherited from colonial days, worked well. African state builders tread a narrow path between the fact of tribal loyalties and the need to minimize inter-tribal hostility.” “Tribalism in Africa,” The Economist (September 10, 1994), pp. 46, 48

Pedological Study and Classification of Some Soils Developed on Volcanic Rocks in Jerantut District, Pahang

Six soil profiles, comprising four soils developed over andesite and two developed over rhyolite were sampled in Jerantut District, State of Pahang. The soils were characterized by physical, chemical, mineralogical and micromorphological techniques. Classification of the soils were carried out according to Soil Taxonomy (USDA, 1996), FAO/UNESCO Legend (1990) and Malaysian Classification Systems (1992). In general, the particle size distribution, colour and some of chemical properties of the soils are directly associated with their parent materials and stage of weathering. The high clay content and redder colouration suggest an advanced stage of weathering and the presence of a high content of mafic minerals in the parent materials. Soil reaction is slightly acidic to moderately acidic in both parent materials with pH(water) ranging from 4.7 to 5.2 and with negative ll. pH values. The soils developed over andesite have a CEC ranging from 10 cmol(+)/kg soil to 15 cmol(+)/kg soil, while in rhyolitic soils, CEC ranges between 5 cmol(+)/kg soil and 10 cmol(+)/kg soil. The more weathered soils have base saturation less than 50% by NH40Ac. The organic carbon, nitrogen, available phosphorus and exchangeable Al content are low for all the soils studied. The free iron oxide content is higher for the soils derived from andesite which are deep soils when compared to soils on rhyolitic materials which are moderately deep soils. The free iron oxide of the soils is 'active' in nature based on the FejFed ratio of more than 0.05 except for one of the profiles over andesite (profile 1) which is less than 0.05 and reflected an advanced stage of weathering. Mineralogically, both of the parent materials are dominated by feldspar and quartz. Calcite, pyroxene, mica and chlorite are present as accessory minerals in andesite while rhyolite only contain chlorite and cristobalite. Kaolinite is the most dominant alumina-silicate clay mineral for these soils. Traces of interstratified layer and varying amount of feldspar, calcite, quartz, mica, halloysite and iron oxide are present. However, in one of the profile over andesite (profile 4), vermiculite is present in large quantity

WikiLeaks in MENA

The situation MENA has been reshuffled from Ben Ali exiled, Mubarak fallen, Gaddafi genocidal, Bahrain recruiting the Saudi military, Yemen using nerve gas, Syria arresting bloggers at random; many other regimes all over the region either attempting to bridge the gap with reform, or steadfastly refusing to see their people rise. To understand this broader phenomenon of protests that have swept through North Africa and parts of the Middle East, one must consider the causality between the two key variables of the revolution: media texts and political change. Two questions are answer the claim of social media and change in the Arab Spring: 1. Has WikiLeaks influenced the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa? 2. What is the role of Journalism

On The Mutations Loops of Valued Quivers

A mutation loop of a valued quiver $Q$, is a combination of quiver automorphisms (permutations of vertices and valuations) and mutations that sends $Q$ to itself. In this article we study what we called \emph{global mutations loops} which are sequences formed of mutations only that send each quiver $Q'$ in the mutation class $[Q]$ to $\sigma (Q')$ for some permutation $\sigma$. Based on the weight of $[Q]$ and the shape of $Q$, we identify which quivers have mutations global loops and we provide them for each case

Effect of exogenous leptin on blood pressure, urinary protein excresion, endothelial activation and ace2 expression during pregnancy in the rat / Hisham Saleh Ibrahim

Raised leptin levels have been reported in placentae and serum of women with elevated blood pressure and proteinuria during pregnancy. The role of leptin in this however remains unclear. ACE2 is a new member in RAAS, which is reported to have hypotensive and anti-inflammatory effect and its suppression leads to increased blood pressure and endothelial activation. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of leptin and xanthenone (ACE2 activator) administration on systolic blood pressure (SBP), proteinuria and serum markers of endothelial activation during pregnancy in Sprague-Dawley rats. Eighty female Sprague-Dawley rats, aged 12- 13 weeks were randomised into 10 groups, Group 1 acted as a control non-pregnant group and given saline (NSNP)

Comparison of tri-polar concentric ring electrodes to disc electrodes for decoding real and imaginary finger movements, A

2019 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.The electroencephalogram (EEG) is broadly used for diagnosis of brain diseases and research of brain activities. Although the EEG provides a good temporal resolution, it suffers from poor spatial resolution due to the blurring effects of volume conduction and signal-to-noise ratio. Many efforts have been devoted to the development of novel methods that can increase the EEG spatial resolution. The surface Laplacian, which is the second derivative of the surface potential, has been applied to EEG to improve the spatial resolution. Tri-polar concentric ring electrodes (TCREs) have been shown to estimate the surface Laplacian automatically with better spatial resolution than conventional disc electrodes. The aim of this research is to study how well the TCREs can be used to acquire EEG signals to decode real and imaginary finger movements. These EEG signals will be then translated into finger movements commands. We also compare the feasibility of discriminating finger movements from one hand using EEG recorded from TCREs and conventional disc electrodes. Furthermore, we evaluated two movement-related features, temporal EEG data and spectral features, in discriminating individual finger from one hand using non-invasive EEG. To do so, movement-related potentials (MRPs) are measured and analyzed from four TCREs and conventional disc electrodes while 13 subjects performed either motor execution or motor imagery of individual finger movements. The tri-polar-EEG (tEEG) and conventional EEG (cEEG) were recorded from electrodes placed according to the 10-20 International Electrode Positioning System over the motor cortex. Our results show that the TCREs achieved higher spatial resolution than conventional disc electrodes. Moreover, the results show that signals from TCREs generated higher decoding accuracy compared to signals from conventional disc electrodes. The average decoding accuracy of five-class classification for all subjects was of 70.04 ± 7.68% when we used temporal EEG data as feature and classified it using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) classifier. In addition, the results show that the TCRE EEG (tEEG) provides approximately a four times enhancement in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) compared to disc electrode signals. We also evaluated the interdependency level between neighboring electrodes from tri-polar, disc, and disc with Hjorth's Laplacian method in time and frequency domains by calculating the mutual information (MI) and coherence. The MRP signals recorded with the TCRE system have significantly less mutual information (MI) between electrodes than the conventional disc electrode system and disc electrodes with Hjorth's Laplacian method. Also, the results show that the mean coherence between neighboring tri-polar electrodes was found to be significantly smaller than disc electrode and disc electrode with Hjorth's method, especially at higher frequencies. This lower coherence in the high frequency band between neighboring tri polar electrodes suggests that the TCREs may record a more localized neuronal activity. The successful decoding of finger movements can provide extra degrees of freedom to drive brain computer interface (BCI) applications, especially for neurorehabilitation

P300 wave detection using Emotiv EPOC+ headset: effects of matrix size, flash duration, and colors

Includes bibliographical references.2016 Fall.Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) allow interactions between human beings and comput- ers without using voluntary muscle. Enormous research effort has been employed in the last few decades to design convenient and user-friendly interfaces. The aim of this study is to provide the people with severe neuromuscular disorders a new augmentative communication technology so that they can express their wishes and communicate with others. The research investigates the capability of Emotiv EPOC+ headset to capture and record one of the BCIs signals called P300 that is used in several applications such as the P300 speller. The P300 speller is a BCI system used to enable severely disabled people to spell words and convey their thoughts without any physical effort. In this thesis, the effects of matrix size, flash duration, and colors were studied. Data are collected from five healthy subjects in their home environments. Different programs are used in this experiment such as OpenViBE platform and MATLAB to pre-process and classify the EEG data. Moreover, the Linear Discriminate Analysis (LDA) classification algorithm is used to classify the data into target and non-target samples

Problema Internal Guru Dalam Penyusunan Silabus Dan RPS Pembelajaran Muatan Lokal Bahasa Daerah Bugis Se-Kecamatan Dua Pitue Sidrap, Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia

Bahasa daerah sebagai salah satu mata pelajaran yang diajarkan di sekolah khususnya di lingkup wilayah penutur bahasa Bugis. Guru dalam pembelajaran menjadi ujung tombak dalam pencapaian tujuan pembelajaran di kelas. Guru memberikan pencerahan dan pemahaman atas pelajaran yang dibawakan di kelas, selain itu juga menjadi fasilitator dalam pendalaman materi yang diajarkan.  Hampir semua komponen terdapat dalam silabus dan dinilai memiliki kelayakan untuk digunakan sebagai panduan guru dalam menyuguhkan materi dalam proses pembelajaran di kelas. Begitu halnya dengan rencana pelaksanaan pembelajaran sangat layak untuk digunakan sebagai pedoman atau landasan dalam mengajarkan pembelajaran bahasa daerah di kelas. Seluruh komponen dalam rencana pelaksanaan pembelajaran disajikan lengkap dan terstruktur sesuai dengan langkah-langkah mulai dari awal pembelajaran hingga guru menutup atau mengakhiri mata pelajaran tersebut