The “Eboliticization” of discourse: Online legitimations on the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa

Working within the tenets of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and insights from Stanley Cohen’s sociological concept of Moral Panic (MP), this study examined the motivations behind some of the online reactions to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. News of the outbreak of the dreaded disease in some countries like Nigeria and the United States caused a great deal of fear and panic in public sphere and widened the personal/social spaces between individuals and altered traditional patterns of social behaviour. The space and the freedom provided by the internet enabled participants to express their sentiments and biases – all in reaction to the Ebola disease. It was discovered that public discourse on the disease did not tilt towards the medical but were political, racial and religious in the main

Internet Use Among Racial/ Ethnic Groups In The United States

The purpose of this study is to determine whether race and/or ethnicity makers) a difference in internet use among groups in the United States. The researcher found that even though the rate and intensity of internet use appears to increase among all racial groups in the United States, minorities, especially, Blacks and Hispanic are significantly less likely than Whites to subscribe, and use the internet frequently and intensely. In other words, digital divide indeed does exist based on race/ ethnicity, regardless of the increase in computer and internet usage among all demographic groups in the United States. The gap however, appears to be widening along the fault-lines of race, geography, education, age, urban vs. rural and more especially, gender. Targeted government initiatives are necessary at least in the short-run to get all the disadvantaged groups hooked up to the computers and the internet as well as support and expand the computer and internet (online) services already provided by libraries, colleges and other community access centers

Racial Disparities in Sentencing: Implications for the Criminal Justice System and the African American Community

This paper analyzes the consequences of discriminatory sentencing on the African American community. The intent is to review factors that contribute to the over-representation of African Americans in the prison system and to analyze the way that the judicial system maintains these disparate numbers through practices and procedures, racial profiling, historical biases and quasi legal procedures sanctioned by the mainstream process under the guise of law and order. Review of the literature,extensive meta- analysis and statistics confirms and support the statistics presented and the finding provided. The results of these harsh and disparate sentencing are resulting in the weakening and destruction of the alreadyfragile African American community. Without a complete overhaul of the judicial system and sensitizing of the decision-makers in the legal and political community, these negative impacts will continue to have adverse effect on a large number of Americans who would otherwise become productive citizens. The conclusion presents remedies and alternatives to the disparate sentencing and incarceration practices perpetrated on members of the African American population

African Americans and Racial Profiling by U.S Law Enforcement: An Analysis of Police Traffic Stops and Searches of Motorists in Nebraska. 2002-2007

The purposes of this paper are to discuss the history of racial profiling; analyze the courts’ positions on the topic; define racial profiling; review related literature on the theme; analyze Nebraska’s law enforcement data between 2002 and 2007; draw appropriate conclusion and in the end make policy recommendations. It tests the hypothesis that race is a predictor or determinant of who (which motorist) and passengers the police in Nebraska would stop, search, arrest, detain or prosecute. Empirical data available is expected to show that there exists strong evidence that there is disparity in police stops, searches, arrests and detentions, and prosecutorial decisions and actions based on race. Put succinctly, more black (African American) motorists will be stopped, searched, arrested, detained and prosecuted because of their race than their white counterparts. The paper concludes that high incidents of arrest of minorities (black/African American, Hispanic and Native Americans) in comparison to their white counterparts in Nebraska was driven by targeted racial profiling (biased law enforcement) initiated by the Drug Enforcement Agency in its “operation pipeline” which had nothing to do with the propensity of members of minority groups to commit crime at a higher rate than whites in similarly situated positions. This disparate and stereotypical method of law enforcement or crime fighting was later upheld by the U.S. Supreme in the famous landmark case, Whren V. U.S.A (1996) thereby expanding much further, police latitude, pretext, and discretionary power of law enforcement. The study, recommends serious reform of the law enforcement establishment to include, public education, community policing, sensitivity training, race-based diversity recruitment and information gathering to improve law enforcement as well as enhance community-police relations in the state of Nebraska and beyond

Linguistic Expression of Religious Identity and Ideology in Selected Postcolonial Nigerian Literature

One of the greatest threats to national development and the rights of individuals and groups in Nigeria and some parts of Africa is the growing increase in religious fundamentalism by major religious in the continent. The worsening economic fortunes of many African countries, poor and corrupt leadership, increase in ethnic nationalism, oppression of the minority by dominant powers and ideologies and the quest for freedom, external influences from extremist (Islamic & Christian) groups among others have been suggested as likely causes of religious fundamentalism in Africa. The postcolonial Nigerian nation has suffered calamitous losses from religious conflicts. Consequently, some of Nigeria’s 21st Century writers have tried in their works to present a situation in which groups use language to construct individual and collective identity and ideology, legitimize their actions, and justify acts of violence against others. The grammatical resource of mood and transitivity employed by the writers enables us to access and appraise individual and group experiences, and intergroup relations in social interactions. The resources of language enable us to perceive how individuals and groups relate to each other in social activities and implicitly or explicitly sustain ideologies that support the structures of oppression and violence. Therefore, working within the tenets of critical stylistics and critical discourse analysis (CDA), this study aims at exposing the motives that underlie the expression of religious identity and ideology in Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus (PH henceforth), Chidubem Iweka’s The Ancient Curse (TAC henceforth), and Uwem Akpan’s Say You’re One of Them (SYOT henceforth) and their implications for national stability and development. The data reveal how the sociopolitical climate in postcolonial Nigeria breeds a culture of hatred, intolerance, violence, exclusion, and curtailment of individual and group rights in the name of religion, and how these acts are expressed in diverse discourse-grammatical patterns

FRAUD PREVENTION AND DETECTION SYSTEM IN NIGERIA BANKING INDUSTRIES

Fraud is on the rise as a result of the advent of modern technology and the global superhighways of banking transactions, resulting in billions of dollars in losses worldwide each year. Although fraud prevention technologies are the most effective method of combating fraud, fraudsters are flexible and will usually find a way around them over time. We need fraud detection approaches if we are to catch fraudsters after fraud prevention has failed. Statistics and machine learning are effective fraud detection technologies that have been used to detect money laundering, e-commerce credit card fraud, telecommunications fraud, and computer intrusion, to name a few. The program is simple to use, and anyone with permission can use it. The importance of computer technology has expanded as it has advanced in all areas of human endeavor.                        Keywords: Fraud Detection, Fraud Prevention, Banking Industries, Telecommunications

EXTRACTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF OIL FROM PRE-MATURE PALM KERNEL

Palm kernel oil was extracted from crushed premature palm kernel using n-hexane as solvent. The experimental investigations reveal that the maximum yield of oil was obtained when the weight of the solvent used is equal to the weight of crushed premature palm kernel used. The particle size of 20 British standard sieve, that is 1.0795mm approximately is used and the temperature of the solvent is close to the boiling point, but solvent loss is so much that 50oC is recommended instead for laboratory and 60oC for industries. The characteristics of the oil were free fatty acid (0.78), iodine value (20.45), saponification value (179.35), acid value (1.54), smoke point (165oc) relative density (0.9011), peroxide value (0) and refractive index (1.432)