Democracy, political participation and good governance in Nigeria

The practice of democracy in Nigeria over a decade ago has not yielded much needed good governance. This is because democracy is practiced in such a way that responsible and competent people are scared away. Scholars and keen observers have attempted at unraveling the factors militating against translating democracy into good governance. The paper revealed that democratisation in Nigeria is pervaded by electoral violence, manipulation of election results and political participation constraints. These identified challenges have made it impossible to attain consolidated democracy that can, in turn, facilitate good governance. Democracy is a catalyst for accountability, transparency and responsive government which brings about good governance. The paper insisted that governance collapse in Nigeria is reflexive of the perfunctory role of the political actors and it adopted elite theory to reinforce this argument. The paper adopted content analysis as a means of data gathering. It dwelt extensively on the synergy between democracy, political participation and good governance but queried the artificial gulf between them in Nigeria. It concluded by putting forth viable and pragmatic way forward

Estimation and comparison of reference evapotranspiration within Kaduna Central District, Nigeria, using four different methods

The reference evapotranspiration (ETo) within Kaduna Central District, Nigeria was estimated from a 30-year climatological data using four different methods namely, Penman-Monteith (PM), Blaney Criddle (BC), Hargreaves (HGRV) and Piche evaporimeter (PiEv) (atmometer) methods. The study shows that the highest ETo values obtained from PM, BC and PiEv were 6.43 mm/day, 7.58 mm/day and 8.63 mm/day, respectively, and these occurred in February, except for HGRV which estimated its highest ETo (3.73 mm/day) in March. The lowest ETo values were obtained in August for all the methods. By means of the confidence index (c), agreement or concordance index (d) and correlation coefficients (r) statistics the BC, HGRV and PiEv ETo values were correlated with that of PM, as the standard. Results showed that BC, HGRV and PiEv gave c-values of 0.88, 0.48 and 0.67, respectively. Hence, BC-PM, HGRV-PM and PiEv-PM correlations were adjudged as excellent, bad and good, respectively, on the basis of criteria for interpretation of the performance of methods of ETo estimations. Blaney-Criddle reference evapotranspiration method gave the best estimate in comparison to the Penman-Monteith standard in the study area. Hence, the Blaney-Criddle ETo can be calibrated with the Penman-Monteith ETo and used effectively within the Kaduna Central District conditions for irrigation water management decisions. Keywords: Estimation and comparison, Reference evapotranspiration,  Methods, Kaduna Central District, Nigeria

Interactions of cross-linked and uncross-linked chitosan hydrogels with surfactants for biomedical applications

The swelling equilibrium of Chitosan and sodium tripolyphosphate (NaTPP) cross-linked chitosan hydrogels in aqueous solutions of surfactants differing in structure and hydrophobicity at 250C is reported. Anionic surfactant sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS), the cationic surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HTAB) and neutral surfactants Triton X-100 were employed. The surfactants induced abrupt change in the gel volume. The equilibrium swelling ratio first decreased sharply as the concentration of the surfactant increased and remained almost constant up to the critical micelles concentration (CMC) of the surfactants and then increased again as the concentration increased above the CMC of the surfactants used. The equilibrium volume change of hydrogel was significantly increased from HTAB > Triton X-100 > SDS> the mixed SDS/Triton X- 100 system. A decrease in equilibrium swelling ratio of the gel in SDS/TX-100 mixtures was observed with an increase in the mole ratio of SDS. The results also revealed that cross-linking with 3% or 5% w/v NaTPP exhibited lower equilibrium swelling values. This swelling study showed that cross-linking density, surfactant type, and their respective concentrations were important parameters that could affect equilibrium swelling of chitosan gel. Structural elucidation of the nanocomposites was monitored using Infra-red Spectroscopy (IR), and X-Ray Diffractography (XRD)

<i>Queer Psycho</i> and the <i>He Circus</i>: Applying Queering, Magic, and More-than-Human Theories to Immersive Visual Story Worlds as an Antidote to Late Capitalism

Abstract Two immersive visual story worlds (IVS), Queer Psycho and HE Circus, are at the center of this article, one made by each of us. Individually we found our works necessitated the development of new frameworks for IVS construction, namely (1) Brechtian a-effect and queering, and (2) magic and more-than-human theories. These new framings were needed to realize our desire to use IVS to create spaces of active resistance from psychological harm imposed by political and ableist structures designed with rigid ways of seeing the world through straight/neoliberal lenses. When both story worlds and their frameworks are viewed side-by-side, they lay bare the prejudices and normative framings of IVS software and industries. Thus, the outline of these new framings with this article makes an original contribution to the field by calling into question those who are designing IVS software and typical frameworks by asking who and what they are benefiting, and proposing alternatives to illustrate how neither should be considered fixed. Finally, the topic of each IVS, that of Hitchcock's Psycho and neoliberal structures of contemporary higher education, offer critiques of systems which serve to highlight our arguments.</jats:p

A Microcontroller Framework for PC Based Electrical Appliance Control System

Personal computers are increasingly becoming the platform of choice to design and implement control algorithms because it is simple to write, modify and update software programs that implement control algorithms. In this paper, the personal computer is used to control the electrical appliances which includes turning high power alternating current (AC) loads such as lights, fans, heaters etc ON or OFF. To successfully integrate the interface box with the machine (laptop), an interface device is used within the PC that can perform the necessary tasks. The interface box can be controlled by the computer by connecting to the USB port and developed a program in C-sharp(C#) programming language. The program will demonstrate the basic idea of how to control devices and monitor events. With the program, the computer can turn electric devices ON/OFF while disregarding the manual control system. Moreover, the people who are physically disabled in homes and work places are able to control the home appliances by interacting with the interface of the developed appliance. It is a necessity to employ the service of Home Appliances Control as it is more effective, efficient and stress-free. Keywords: Personal Computers, Home Control Appliance, Distribution Fuse Board (DFB), Graphical User Interface (GUI), Interface Box, Internal Module, Enumeration, Local Area Network (LAN)

Drosophila para bss Flies as a Screening Model for Traditional Medicine: Anticonvulsant Effects of Annona senegalensis.

Epilepsy is among the most common serious neurological disorders and affects around 50 million people worldwide, 80% of which live in developing countries. Despite the introduction of several new Anti-Epileptic Drugs (AEDs) in the last two decades, one third of treated patients have seizures refractory to pharmacotherapy. This highlights the need to develop new treatments with drugs targeting alternative seizure-induction mechanisms. Traditional medicine (TM) is used for the treatment of epilepsy in many developing countries and could constitute an affordable and accessible alternative to AEDs, but a lack of pre-clinical and clinical testing has so far prevented its wider acceptance worldwide. In this study we used Drosophila melanogaster paralytic bangsensitive (para bss ) mutants as a model for epileptic seizure screening and tested, for the first time, the anti-seizure effect of a non-commercial AED. We evaluated the effect of the African custard-apple, Annona senegalensis, which is commonly used as a TM for the treatment of epilepsy in rural Africa, and compared it with the classical AED phenytoin. Our results showed that a stem bark extract from A. senegalensis was significantly more effective than a leaf extract and similar to phenytoin in the prevention and control of seizure-like behavior. These results support that Drosophila constitutes a robust animal model for the screening of TM with potential value for the treatment of intractable epilepsy

Development of oil-in-water (o/w) nanoemulsion formulations for spontaneous transdermal delivery of ciprofloxacin

Nanoemulsions have attracted attention in delivery of therapeutically active agents since most of the new chemical entities are hydrophobic in nature and the delivery of poor water soluble drugs is a challenge. This study was carried out to adopt nanoemulsion as a means of entrapping ciprofloxacin in the oil phase of the emulsion for transdermal drug delivery. Nanoemulsions were formulated as oil in water (O/W) type and prepared by self-mild mechanical nanoemulsification method. The formulation consisted of Sandbox (Huracrepitan) and Sesame seed (Sesamumindicum) as the organic phase of the emulsion, Polyethylene (20) sorbitanmonooleate (Tween 80) and Polyethylene (20) sorbitanmonolaurate (Tween 20) as the surfactants and Polyehtylene glycol (PEG 400) as co-surfactant. The formulations were tested and characterized. Ciprofloxacin (0.075 g) was incorporated into the oil phase of the most stable nanoemulsion formulation prior emulsification and tested on Escherichia coli. Transdermal application was done on male Wister rats (R) followed by biopsification. The result showed the zones of inhibition of HCa3+Ciprofloxacin (Ciprofloxacin-loaded, Huracrpitan oil based nanoemulsion) and SSA3+Ciprofloxacin (Ciprofloxacin-loaded, Sesame oil based nanoemulsion) to be 26.00 and 25.00 mm respectively. The HPLC results showed that, out of 75000 µg of ciprofloxacin loaded in the oil phases of HCa3 and SSA3 formulations, 6.0076 (R2), 0.4112 (R3) and 6.7241 µg (R6) were absorbed in HCa3 while 1.9519 (R1), 1.2631 (R4) and 2.1801 µg (R5) were absorbed in SSA3. The SEM images revealed an encapsulation with globule size diameter of 94 and 63 nm respectively. The findings of this work showed that sandbox and Sesame seedoil based nanoemulsions are effective for transdermal drug delivery

Pathways to Architectural Education and Practice Success in Nigeria

Architectural practice and education has always been seen by architects and students of the discipline as a tough and demanding terrain. This may be connected to the obvious demands of the training of architects, characterized by long hours of design, drafting, and modelling. This does not end at the schools of architecture but continues through the practice journey. However, some veterans of the profession argue that this is the sure pathway towards success in architecture. This paper aims at providing pathways towards the preservation and sustenance of the relevance of the profession and architectural practice in Nigeria. The paper adopts a qualitative research approach while presenting findings from in-depth interviews of sixteen leading principals of architectural firms drawn from Lagos, Abuja, Benin-city, Enugu and Port Harcourt. The study explores the challenges of the practice environment, the shortcomings of the products from the schools; practice demands and the pathways to being a desirable graduate and architect in practice. The paper concludes with the recommendations that certain areas of study of architecture such as detailing, understanding of planning laws, regulations and entrepreneurship studies in architecture should be given intensified attention in the training institutions. The need for architects to reach out socially through all available media within the ambits of the law to promote commissions while being actively involved in the activities of their professional bodies was found to be a crucial path to practice success. Finally, partnerships and collaborations between architects and firms is assuredly a path towards promoting stronger, healthier and enduring architectural businesses