Economic Contribution of Forest Leafy Vegetables Marketing in Uyo, Nigeria

Forest leafy vegetable (FLV) are edible part of indigenous plant which are harvested from within and on the fringes of natural, manipulated or disturbed forest. But little is known and documented about their commercial performance and developmental linkages. This study therefore examines the economic contribution of forest leafy vegetables to the livelihood of dwellers in Uyo LGA of Akwa Ibom State. Structure questionnaire was used to elicit information from 105 purposefully selected marketers from six (6) markets namely Akpan andeme, Ikot oku, Itam, Ikpa junction, Nung udoe and Itak uyo. Information gathered was subjected to descriptive statistical analysis of simple proportions and percentages, while simple cost analysis of profit and rate of return on investment was also carried out for economic evaluation.Result showed that startup capital rang between N1, 000- N10, 000. Among the nine (9) FLV marketed Gnetum africana has the highest profit per kg (N191.50) and Vernonia amygdalina has the lowest profit margin per kg (N79.19). The most traded FLV are Gnetum africana (Afang) and Lasianthera africana (Editan). The highest rate of return on investment was found at Itam market with a rate of 51.52% while Akpan andeme has (47.76%), Ikot oku (50.73), Ikpa junction (49.55%), Itak uyo (49.81%), and Nung udoe (45.99%).The threats to the marketing of FLVs are seasonality and perishability of products as well as sustainability of production because most FLV are collected from the wild and not planted. In other to sustain this livelihood activity, it is recommended that domestication of FLVs be encourage among farmers and home gardens in the community. Keywords: Forest Leafy Vegetables (FLVs), Marketing, Profitability and livelihood

Detecting and understanding non-compliance with conservation rules

AbstractThis paper establishes the context for the special issue, “Detecting and Understanding Violations of Conservation Rules”. Illicit or non-compliant human behaviors may occur in all ecosystems and range from subsistence illegal resource collection to poaching by organized criminal syndicates. Such acts have an enormous impact on social–ecological systems, but monitoring non-compliance is challenging, primarily because the topic is sensitive and victims are voiceless. The future of many conservation areas depends upon compliance with conservation rules. However, with a growing human population, consumptive societies, and rapid expansion of business opportunities fueled by new technology, there is little doubt that demand will remain steady or increase for many of our natural resources. We outline major conservation compliance issues and impacts, and review models and methods used to monitor and respond to the problem for both subsistence and commercial non-compliance

The Validity of Self-Reported Criminal Arrest History Among Clients of a Psychiatric Probation and Parole Service

Self-report data have consistently demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity in prior studies by exhibiting high correlations with other criterion related measures of criminal frequency and arrest history. Mental health factors and substance abuse factors are suspected to affect the quality and accuracy of self-reported data. This analysis sought to examine the impact of major mental illness and substance abuse factors on the validity of self-reported criminal history data as given by clients of a psychiatric probation and parole service. After controlling for socio-demographic variables, the number of officially recorded arrests, high number of lifetime hospitalizations and overall years spent in jail significantly explained the number of self-reported arrests. The predominance of the official record in explaining self-reported arrest history suggests that self-reported arrest history data given by a psychiatric offender population is as valid as that given by general offender populations. Substance abuse factors and mental illness factors did not affect the quality and accuracy of self-reported arrest history

The emergence of integrated private reporting

Purpose: Private social and environmental reporting (SER) has grown considerably in recent years, consistent with a rise in institutional investor engagement and dialogue with investee companies. We interpret the emergence of integrated private reporting through the lens of institutional logics. We frame the emergence of integrated private reporting as a merging of two hitherto separate and possibly rival institutional logics. Methodology/Approach: We interviewed 19 companies listed on the FTSE100 and 20 UK institutional investors. The interviews were semi-structured and analysed in an interpretive fashion. Findings and Implications: We provide evidence to suggest that private SER is beginning to merge with private financial reporting and that, as a result integrated private reporting is emerging. This trend is mirroring the international trend in public reporting toward an integrated approach. Specifically, we find that specialist social responsible investment managers are starting to attend private financial reporting meetings whilst mainstream fund managers are starting to attend private meetings on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Further, senior company directors are becoming increasingly conversant with ESG issues. We interpret our findings as two possible scenarios: (i) there is a genuine hybridisation occurring in UK institutional investment such that integrated private reporting is emerging, or; (ii) the financial logic is absorbing and effectively neutralising the responsible investment logic. Originality: This is the first research investigating the evolution of private integrated reporting

Degrees of entanglement for multipartite systems

We propose a unified mathematical scheme, based on a classical tensor isomorphism, for characterizing entanglement that works for pure states of multipartite systems of any number of particles. The degree of entanglement is indicated by a set of absolute values of the determinants for each subspace of the multipartite systems. Unlike other schemes, our scheme provides indication of the degrees of entanglement when the qubits are measured or lost successively, and leads naturally to the necessary and sufficient conditions for multipartite pure states to be separable. For systems with a large number of particles, a rougher indication of the degree of entanglement is provided by the set of mean values of the determinantal values for each subspace of the multipartite systems.Comment: 12 pages, no figure

Affine algebraic groups with periodic components

A connected component of an affine algebraic group is called periodic if all its elements have finite order. We give a characterization of periodic components in terms of automorphisms with finite number of fixed points. It is also discussed which connected groups have finite extensions with periodic components. The results are applied to the study of the normalizer of a maximal torus in a simple algebraic group.Comment: 20 page

Hopelessly Mortal: The Role of Mortality Salience, Immortality and Trait Self-esteem in Personal Hope

Do people lose hope when thinking about death? Based on Terror Management Theory, we predicted that thoughts of death (i.e., mortality salience) would reduce personal hope for people low, but not high, in self-esteem, and that this reduction in hope would be ameliorated by promises of immortality. In Studies 1 and 2, mortality salience reduced personal hope for people low in self-esteem, but not for people high in self-esteem. In Study 3, mortality salience reduced hope for people low in self-esteem when they read an argument that there is no afterlife, but not when they read “evidence” supporting life after death. In Study 4, this effect was replicated with an essay affirming scientific medical advances that promise immortality. Together, these findings uniquely demonstrate that thoughts of mortality interact with trait self-esteem to cause changes in personal hope, and that literal immortality beliefs can aid psychological adjustment when thinking about death. Implications for understanding personal hope, trait self-esteem, afterlife beliefs and terror management are discussed

Cluster Dynamics for Randomly Frustrated Systems with Finite Connectivity

In simulations of some infinite range spin glass systems with finite connectivity, it is found that for any resonable computational time, the saturatedenergy per spin that is achieved by a cluster algorithm is lowered in comparison to that achieved by Metropolis dynamics.The gap between the average energies obtained from these two dynamics is robust with respect to variations of the annealing schedule. For some probability distribution of the interactions the ground state energy is calculated analytically within the replica symmetry assumptionand is found to be saturated by a cluster algorithm.Comment: Revtex, 4 pages with 3 figure

What determines auditory similarity? The effect of stimulus group and methodology.

Two experiments on the internal representation of auditory stimuli compared the pairwise and grouping methodologies as means of deriving similarity judgements. A total of 45 undergraduate students participated in each experiment, judging the similarity of short auditory stimuli, using one of the methodologies. The experiments support and extend Bonebright's (1996) findings, using a further 60 stimuli. Results from both methodologies highlight the importance of category information and acoustic features, such as root mean square (RMS) power and pitch, in similarity judgements. Results showed that the grouping task is a viable alternative to the pairwise task with N > 20 sounds whilst highlighting subtle differences, such as cluster tightness, between the different task results. The grouping task is more likely to yield category information as underlying similarity judgements

Scaling properties of scale-free evolving networks: Continuous approach

Scaling behavior of scale-free evolving networks arising in communications, citations, collaborations, etc. areas is studied. We derive universal scaling relations describing properties of such networks and indicate limits of their validity. We show that main properties of scale-free evolving networks may be described in frames of a simple continuous approach. The simplest models of networks, which growth is determined by a mechanism of preferential linking, are used. We consider different forms of this preference and demonstrate that the range of types of preference linking producing scale-free networks is wide. We obtain also scaling relations for networks with nonlinear, accelerating growth and describe temporal evolution of arising distributions. Size-effects - cut-offs of these distributions - implement restrictions for observation of power-law dependences. The main characteristic of interest is so-called degree distribution, i.e., distribution of a number of connections of nodes. A scaling form of the distribution of links between pairs of individual nodes for the growing network of citations is also studied. We describe effects that produce difference of nodes. ``Aging'' of nodes changes exponents of distributions. Appearence of a single ``strong'' node changes dramatically the degree distribution of a network. If its strength exceeds some threshold value, the strong node captures a finite part of all links of a network. We show that permanent random damage of a growing scale-free network - permanent deleting of some links - change radically values of the scaling exponents. We describe the arising rich phase diagram. Results of other types of permanent damage are described.Comment: 21 pages revtex (twocolumn), 9 figure