Determinants of Selected Agricultural Export Crops in Nigeria: An Ecm Approach

This study examines the factors that determine the export performance of three major agricultural exportable commodities of cocoa, rubber and palm-kernel in the context of liberalization. Using time series data covering thirty three years and to avoid spurious result, error correction model was applied in the analysis. The unit root test is in line with the a priori expectation that macroeconomic variables are not stationary at their level. Virtually all the variables tested were differenced once before attaining stationarity. Each of the three equations indicated that the dependent variables cointegrated with their arguments at 1 percent level. There is the existence of short term and long term equilibrium relationships between the dependent variables and their determinants. The results of the parsimonious error correction specifications showed that the previous year’s output and the net value of world trade negatively affect cocoa exports at 1 percent level while the previous year’s GDP positively contributes to cocoa exports at 5 percent. The lagged price ratio reduces rubber exports significantly at 5 percent but the real exchange rate significantly increases the export performance of rubber at 10 percent level. The previous year’s exports of palm kernel and the real GDP contributed positively to palm-kernel exports at 5 percent level while the lagged premium and palm kernel output negatively contributed to its export at 5 percent and 10 percent respectively. Promotion of agricultural exports is essential to reduce the burden of dependence on oil exportsAgricultural exports, Cointegration, ECM, Nigeria, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Industrial Organization, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Calling the judiciary to account for the past : transitional justice and judicial accountability in Nigeria

Institutional and individual accountability is an important feature of societies in transition from conflict or authoritarian rule. The imperative of accountability has both normative and transformational underpinnings in the context of restoration of the rule of law and democracy. This article argues a case for extending the purview of truth-telling processes to the judiciary in postauthoritarian contexts. The driving force behind the inquiry is the proposition that the judiciary as the third arm of government at all times participates in governance. To contextualize the argument, I focus on judicial governance and accountability within the paradigm of Nigeria’s transition to democracy after decades of authoritarian military rule

Teleparallel dark energy model with a fermionic field via Noether symmetry

In the present work, we consider a model with a fermionic field that is non-minimally coupled to gravity in the framework of teleparallel gravity. In order to determine forms of the coupling and potential function of fermionic field for the considered model, we use Noether symmetry approach. By applying this approach, for the Friedman-Robertson-Walker metric, we obtain respective potential and coupling function as a linear and power-law form of the bilinear $\Psi$. Further we search the exact cosmological solution of the model. It is shown that the fermionic field plays role of the dark energy.Comment: 7 pages, no figure, the version accepted for publication in The European Physical Journal

Voting and Information Aggregation in Parliamentary and Semi-Presidential Democracies

This paper investigates legislation in parliamentary and semi-presidential democracies where the legislature and the president have formal role in legislation. A proposed law is first voted in the legislature and if it passes, comes to the consideration of the president. I study two prevalent legislative procedures: (i) Single-round legislation where the president's action is final, (ii) Two-round legislation the president's approval enacts the law but after his veto proposal returns to the legislature for rediscussion. In this setup I examine power balance and the efficiency of information aggregation. For this I build a model of strategic voting with incomplete information and analyze different ideological profiles of the president and the homogenous legislature. The president seems powerless in two-round legislation but in equilibrium there are instances he can change the legislation result. Power struggle arises only when the legislature is modernist and the president is conservative. If the legislature is conservative and the president is modernist, the president has no impact on the outcome, but adversely affects informational efficiency. If they have the same ideological bias, the presidential institution is beneficial and the president's existence provides full information aggregation with finite legislature size in single-round legislation. Above results can be generalized to heterogeneous legislature with two types, except full information aggregation is never achieved

KLASIFIKASI MALWARE ANDROID DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN METODE CATBOOST ALGORITMA

In 2008, Android was introduced as a popular open source project due to its customizability and low hardware requirements. Mid-2021 statistics from GlobalStat Counter shows that Android dominates the mobile operating system market with 72.74%. Despite its popularity, Android is becoming a target for malware attacks in the context of cyber crime. This problem prompted this research to be carried out with the aim of identifying and classifying Android malware which is continuously developing by applying machine learning logic, especially using the methodCatBoost. This method was chosen based on its effectiveness in previous research which has been proven to provide high accuracy. Performance evaluation involves comparisons betweenCatBoost and several previous researchers' methods, inclKNN (K-Nearest Neighbors), SVM (Support Vector Machine), LR (Logistic Regression), RF (Random Forest), ET (Extra Trees), XG (XGBoost), AB (Adaboost), and BG (Bagging), using common metrics such asValidation Accuracy, Detection Accuracy, and F1-Score. The research results show thatCatBoost managed to achieveValidation Accuracy amounting to 96.66%,Detection Accuracy 96,87%, andF1-Score of 96.81% puts it in a competitive position with most other methods, exceptRF (Random Forest). CatBoost's consistent superiority in this comparison shows its potential as an effective and consistent solution in Android malware detection and classification

THE STUDY ON THE MESSAGES FOUND IN “THE ANIMAL SONG” IN SAVAGE GARDEN’S ALBUM “AFFIRMATION”

Human ideas and emotions are buried deeply in the bottom of the world of imagination. Within the process of communication, human being could express the curiousity of translating emotion that is never silent and bringing out the new idea invention that never stops. At certain chances, human expression is reflected in the form of poetry. This literary work is assumed to have flexibility to represent the translation of ideas and emotions. The lyrical poem of poetry is furthermore compiled and played together in the sway of the beats as a song. The song is an amazing and unique way to express human feeling and emotion. Based on the explanation above, the writer conducts a study to dig both general and detailed meaning and the messages found in Savage Garden’s “The Animal Song” of the AFFIRMATION album on reason that music has become more favourable as a unique way to express thought, feeling and emotions. Moreover, Savage Garden is one of the most interesting music bands whose lyrical poems is kind of wise thought of idealism as critical sympathy and empathy for social life all around the world. \ud The research design of this study is descriptive qualitative because there is no quantity of available data and obtained information that will be presented. Meanwhile, the approach of this study is objective approach to interpret the core of Savage Garden’s “The Animal Song” based only on the writer’s personal view toward the literary work without any consideration of the relationship of the song to either the writer’s or the band’s experience and social cultural background when or where the song was written. Beside, in the process of data collection, library research is the most appropriate instrument due to the problem of study.\ud The result of this study revealed that the whole lyrical poems of Savage Garden’s “The Animal Song” tell very deeply about the recent world where peace and harmony of heavenly life start to vanish and fade away. The rules and principles of life to keep the world in the continuum of peace and harmony had left prohibited, infringed, and violated. The sense of sympathy, empathy and the nature of humanity are being excluded from attitudes toward the effort of keeping such mutual life of peace and harmony out of the manner of violence and destruction. The messages of the whole lyrical poems tell that modern world has turned wicked, struggle, hard and severe; and also sympathy, empathy and humanity. Savage Garden’s “The Animal Song” is furthermore a metaphor for the expectation of the only living creature who could, should and would maintain the continuum of beautiful life. \u

Keeping an Open Mind: Challenges and Mysteries in Cancer Cell Biology Research

I received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) in 2016 to work in Professor Chuck Walker’s cell biology lab, where I had been involved since 2014. I worked under the guidance of Dr. Walker and alongside other colleagues in the lab. My work during that time focused on culturing cancer cells and investigatingthe proteinp53 within them. The body aims toprevent tumors from forming by protecting the integrity of its cells’ DNA. The protein p53 is so vital in this role that it is often referred to as the “guardian of the genome.” In fact, more than half of all human cancers are associated with malfunctionsthat disrupt p53 function. My project had two objectives. First, I sought to confirm the presence of the p53-mortalin complex in the cells I was planning to use. Second, I tried to disrupt the complex using MKT-077 and withanone and determine the effectiveness of these agents in allowing p53 to move to the nucleus and trigger apoptosis. I planned to designate groups of cells as untreated, MKT-treated, or withanone-treated. For each group, I chose a series of analytical techniques that could pinpoint p53 inthe cell (to see whether it was stuck in the cytoplasm or already in the nucleus) and determine the levels of cell death by apoptosis. The various surprises I experienced while working on my SURF project taught me that research won’t always be as clear-cut as one might expect. I learned the importance of keeping an open mind and considering the possibility of obstacles and unexpected outcomes in order to make sense of conflicting results