Citizen Diplomacy and Nigeria’s International Image: The Social Constructivist Explanation

The perception of any country is a vital ingredient in assessing her international standing. This implies that a country with negative or image crisis is a bad item in the diplomatic market. Nigeria‟s international image has oscillated between periods of positivity and negativity, with the latter being preponderant. Citizen diplomacy as Nigeria‟s foreign policy thrust emerged in 2007 to interrogate and reconstruct the country‟s dwindling image in the internation al system. Through secondary sources of data and social constructivism as framework of analysis, the paper posits that restoration and sustenance of citizen diplomacy and vigorous drive have the potentials for creating a better image for Nigeria. Other recommendations proffered can also redress the image deficit of the country

Citizen Diplomacy and Nigeria’s International Image: The Social Constructivist Explanation

The perception of any country is a vital ingredient in assessing her international standing. This implies that a country with negative or image crisis is a bad item in the diplomatic market. Nigeria‟s international image has oscillated between periods of positivity and negativity, with the latter being preponderant. Citizen diplomacy as Nigeria‟s foreign policy thrust emerged in 2007 to interrogate and reconstruct the country‟s dwindling image in the internation al system. Through secondary sources of data and social constructivism as framework of analysis, the paper posits that restoration and sustenance of citizen diplomacy and vigorous drive have the potentials for creating a better image for Nigeria. Other recommendations proffered can also redress the image deficit of the country

Foreign Policy and Regional Hegemony in Africa: A Study of the Nigeria-South Africa (2014) Arms Deal Debacle

This study investigates the efficacy of foreign policy thrust and instruments in attaining hegemonic status, especially by rival states within a region/continent. Predicated on this, the paper zeroes-in on the relationship between Nigeria and South Africa, identifying their interaction as delicate oscillation between cooperation and competition, with the 2014 Arms Deal debacle marking a watershed. As a qualitative study that relied on secondary data, the adoption of realist theory as framework backed by textual analysis informed the findings, discussions and recommendations of the paper. An appropriately articulated and executed foreign policy thrust by Nigeria to capture national interests will boost the country’s chances of levelling up with South Africa in the fierce competition for regional hegemony

Hepatoprotective and antioxidant effi cacy of aqueous stem bark extracts of Balanites aegyptiaca (Linn.) Del. against acetaminophen induced liver injury in rats

Traditional use of various extracts of Balanites aegyptiaca in the management of many diseases has been previouslyreported. Though oxidative stress is known to contribute to the development of many of the disease conditionson which extracts of B. aegytiaca have been found efficacious, effects of these extracts on free radical-inducedlipid peroxidation is not well understood. This study investigated the protective effects of stem bark extracts ofB. aegyptiaca on acetaminophen-induced lipid peroxidation in rats. Phytochemical analysis of the plant extract usedwas conducted. Following a 10 day pre-treatment with extracts of B. aegyptiaca, serum levels of thiobarbituricreactive substances (TBARS), vitamin C, cholesterol/phospholipids, catalase (CAT) activity as well as markersenzymes of hepatotoxicity were measured in rats administered with acetaminophen (2 mg/kg body weight).Results obtained indicated preponderance of alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides, phenols, saponins, and tannins.Pre-treatment with extracts of B. aegyptiaca protected against acetaminophen-induced elevation of TBARS andmarker enzymes of hepatotoxicity as well as inhibited the depletion of serum levels of vitamin C, CAT activity andphospholipids in a dose-dependent manner. Serum levels of cholesterol were not affected by acetaminophenintoxication or treatment with the plant extract. These results indicated that therapeutic actions previouslylinked with extracts of B. aegyptiaca might be a consequence of its antioxidative and hepatoprotective effects

Two-Stage Priming of Allogeneic Natural Killer Cells for the Treatment of Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Phase I Trial

Human Natural Killer (NK) cells require at least two signals to trigger tumor cell lysis. Absence of ligands providing either signal 1 or 2 provides NK resistance. We manufactured a lysate of a tumour cell line which provides signal 1 to resting NK cells without signal 2. The tumor-primed NK cells (TpNK) lyse NK resistant Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) blasts expressing signal 2 ligands. We conducted a clinical trial to determine the toxicity of TpNK cell infusions from haploidentical donors. 15 patients with high risk AML were screened, 13 enrolled and 7 patients treated. The remaining 6 either failed to respond to re-induction chemotherapy or the donor refused to undergo peripheral blood apheresis. The conditioning consisted of fludarabine and total body irradiation. This was the first UK trial of a cell therapy regulated as a medicine. The complexity of Good Clinical Practice compliance was underestimated and led to failures requiring retrospective independent data review. The lessons learned are an important aspect of this report. There was no evidence of infusional toxicity. Profound myelosuppression was seen in the majority (median neutrophil recovery day 55). At six months follow-up, three patients treated in Complete Remission (CR) remained in remission, one patient infused in Partial Remission had achieved CR1, two had relapsed and one had died. One year post-treatment one patient remained in CR. Four patients remained in CR after treatment for longer than their most recent previous CR. During the 2 year follow-up six of seven patients died; median overall survival was 400 days post infusion (range 141–910). This is the first clinical trial of an NK therapy in the absence of IL-2 or other cytokine support. The HLA-mismatched NK cells survived and expanded in vivo without on-going host immunosuppression and appeared to exert an anti-leukemia effect in 4/7 patients treated

Extracts of Jatropha curcas L. exhibit significant insecticidal and grain protectant effects against maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Phytochemical composition of leaf extracts as well as biological effects of juice, leaf extracts and seed oil of Jatropha curcas against Sitophilus zeamis were examined. The study also investigated the inhibition of oviposition, progeny production and grain damage, insecticidal effects and mammalian toxicity of the extracts. Compared to other phytochemicals, the concentration of saponin and cardiac glycoside were higher in the leaf extract. All extracts of J. curcas (0 – 100 ppm) investigated showed a dose-dependent inhibition of ovisposition, progeny production and promote significant (P < 0.001) insect mortality. Grains pre-treated with seed oil produced the highest result for all the parameters. The seed oil (100 ppm) produced 93% (P < 0.001) protection against grain damage by Sitophilus zeamis. Observable physical deformities were observed in rats administered with graded doses of the seed oil as opposed to other extracts. Administration of a single dose of the extracts produced significant (P < 0.01) elevation of serum level of alanine (ALT) and aspartic (AST) transaminases and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in rats.Published onlin

Toward Optimized High-Relaxivity MRI Agents: The Effect of Ligand Basicity on the Thermodynamic Stability of Hexadentate Hydroxypyridonate/Catecholate Gadolinium(III) Complexes

The thermodynamic stabilities of the Gd III complexes of five hexadentate ligands, which incorporate the 2,3-dihydroxyterephthalamide and 2,3-hydroxypyridonate chelating moieties, have been determined by potentiometric and spectrophotometric titration. The ligands were chosen to span a range of basicities while maintaining a similar tripodal structural motif, facilitating a study of the effect of ligand basicity on the thermodynamic stability of the Gd III complexes. The relative stability of the five complexes is found to be highly pH dependent, with the most acidic ligands forming the most stable complexes at low pH and more basic ligands forming more stable complexes at high pH. The most stable Gd III complex at a physiological pH of 7.4 is formed with a ligand of intermediate basicity and is of stability comparable to that of Gd III complexes that feature eight-coordinate amino−carboxylate ligands and are currently used as magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents in diagnostic medicine. A single-crystal X-ray structure of the intermediate compound 3-hydroxy-6-methyl-2-oxo-1,2-dihydropyridine-4-carboxylic acid ethyl ester is described: This compound crystallizes in the triclinic space group P1 h with a ) 7.4801(3) Å, b ) 8.0671(3) Å, c ) 8.3457(4) Å, R ) 72.242(2)°, ) 80.693(2)°, γ ) 69.943(3)°, V ) 449.60(3) Å 3 , Z ) 2, and R ) 0.042

Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning Techniques for the Prediction of Employee Performance

Human Resources’ purpose is to assign the best people to the right job at the right time, train and qualify them, and provide evaluation methods to track their performance and safeguard employees’ perspective skills. These data are crucial for decision-makers, but collecting the best and most useful information from such large amounts of data is tough. Human Resource employees no longer need to manually handle vast amounts of data with the advent of data mining. Data mining’s primary goal is to uncover information hidden in data patterns and trends in order to produce results that are close to ideal. This study aims at comparing the performance of three techniques in the prediction of performance. The dataset undergoes preprocessing steps that include data cleaning, and data compression using Principal Component Analysis. After preprocessing, training and classification were done using Artificial Neural Network, Random Forest, and Decision tree algorithm. The result showed that Artificial Neural networks performed the best in the prediction of employee performance

Combining Antigen-Based Therapy with GABA Treatment Synergistically Prolongs Survival of Transplanted ß-Cells in Diabetic NOD Mice

Antigen-based therapies (ABTs) very effectively prevent the development of type 1 diabetes (T1D) when given to young nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice, however, they have little or no ability to reverse hyperglycemia in newly diabetic NOD mice. More importantly, ABTs have not yet demonstrated an ability to effectively preserve residual ß-cells in individuals newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Accordingly, there is great interest in identifying new treatments that can be combined with ABTs to safely protect ß-cells in diabetic animals. The activation of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors (GABA-Rs) on immune cells has been shown to prevent T1D, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and rheumatoid arthritis in mouse models. Based on GABA's ability to inhibit different autoimmune diseases and its safety profile, we tested whether the combination of ABT with GABA treatment could prolong the survival of transplanted ß-cells in newly diabetic NOD mice. Newly diabetic NOD mice were untreated, or given GAD/alum (20 or 100 µg) and placed on plain drinking water, or water containing GABA (2 or 6 mg/ml). Twenty-eight days later, they received syngenic pancreas grafts and were monitored for the recurrence of hyperglycemia. Hyperglycemia reoccurred in the recipients given plain water, GAD monotherapy, GABA monotherapy, GAD (20 µg)+GABA (2 mg/ml), GAD (20 µg)+GABA (6 mg/ml) and GAD (100 µg)+GABA (6 mg/ml) about 1, 2-3, 3, 2-3, 3-8 and 10-11 weeks post-transplantation, respectively. Thus, combined GABA and ABT treatment had a synergistic effect in a dose-dependent fashion. These findings suggest that co-treatment with GABA (or other GABA-R agonists) may provide a new strategy to safely enhance the efficacy of other therapeutics designed to prevent or reverse T1D, as well as other T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases

Adsorption of hydroxamate siderophores and EDTA on goethite in the presence of the surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate

Siderophore-promoted iron acquisition by microorganisms usually occurs in the presence of other organic molecules, including biosurfactants. We have investigated the influence of the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) on the adsorption of the siderophores DFOB (cationic) and DFOD (neutral) and the ligand EDTA (anionic) onto goethite (α-FeOOH) at pH 6. We also studied the adsorption of the corresponding 1:1 Fe(III)-ligand complexes, which are products of the dissolution process. Adsorption of the two free siderophores increased in a similar fashion with increasing SDS concentration, despite their difference in molecule charge. In contrast, SDS had little effect on the adsorption of EDTA. Adsorption of the Fe-DFOB and Fe-DFOD complexes also increased with increasing SDS concentrations, while adsorption of Fe-EDTA decreased. Our results suggest that hydrophobic interactions between adsorbed surfactants and siderophores are more important than electrostatic interactions. However, for strongly hydrophilic molecules, such as EDTA and its iron complex, the influence of SDS on their adsorption seems to depend on their tendency to form inner-sphere or outer-sphere surface complexes. Our results demonstrate that surfactants have a strong influence on the adsorption of siderophores to Fe oxides, which has important implications for siderophore-promoted dissolution of iron oxides and biological iron acquisition