Ethnic Politics and National Integration in Nigeria: An Impact Analysis

Since Nigeria s independence in 1960 Nigerian politics has been bedeviled by ethnic politics as a result of ethnic polarization and sentimental coloration of all national issues This problem has been one of the major factors inhibiting national integration and national development in Nigeria Nigerian politics is tainted with ethnic sentiments and politically induced disharmony Ethnic politics has been one of the factors responsible for low productivity and the general poor socio - economic development in Nigeria The major focus of this study is to examine the challenges of ethnic politics in Nigeria as it relates to national integration with a view to critically evaluating the impact Secondary data was used to gather relevant information for this study One finding of the study is that ethnic politics was deliberately introduced and propagated in the Nigerian political system by the British colonial government through its divisive divide and rule policy to actualize colonial and imperialist economic and political objectives The situation has not abated in spite of several attempts to redress it through state creation and the Federal character principl

Rethinking Prebendialism in Nigeria’s Socio-Political Process: The Implication for Democratisation of South-South Region

This study examines Godfathers impacts in the Nigerian socio-political process and the implication on the nascent democracy in the South-South Region The design was exploratory and the study was descriptive combining secondary data from books and the internet The study uncovered that godfathers were patron-occupying state offices as pre-bends They became the gate-keeper determines the development initiative to be followed and employed benefactors of privileges This study s findings also indicated that the state s character and the natures of politics in Nigeria had impacted negative values which now threatens the very foundation of the country s blossoming democracy leading to unhealthy rivalry and competition among godfathers to have control over state powers using their favoured political godsons and denies the electorates of their right to elect a generally acceptable candidate This act renders no free and fair elections Also the struggle for control of state powers has resulted in electoral violence in Nigeria either before or during or after election

Participatory Budgeting in Nigerian Local Government Administration: A Panacea for Rural Development in Nigeria

Government annual budget is a public proclamation of its projected and actual expenditures which provide vital evidence of where a State sets its priorities Therefore this article seeks to show how the participatory budgeting offers citizens a large opportunity to learn about government operations and to deliberate debate and influence the allocation of public resources in the local government councils Through a descriptive historical analysis this study shows that the local government s current budget processes reveal that citizens have no understanding of what the local government council is committing itself to in its policy declarations and what it actually does in its budgetary allocations The extremely complicated technical and esoteric nature of the budget-making process and documents does not allow citizens to participate to have any say in it or to monitor the process it is the position of this paper that participatory budgeting programs are implemented at the behest of governments citizens nongovernmental organizations NGOs and civil society organizations CSOs to allow citizens to play a direct role in deciding how and where resources should be spent It is a tool for educating engaging and empowering citizens and strengthening demand for good governance It also enhanced transparency and accountability More so the study revealed that participatory budgeting helps reduce government inefficiency and curb clientelism patronage and corruption Besides recommending encouragement of citizen s participation in budgeting community-based organizations the civil society and the media should be involved and be stimulated to play the role of a conscience keeper on behalf of the poor and marginalized in the societ

Size-dependent optical properties of colloidal PbS quantum dots

We quantitatively investigate the size-dependent optical properties of colloidal PbS nanocrystals or quantum dots (Qdots) by combining-the Qdot absorbance spectra with detailed elemental analysis of the Qdot suspensions. At high energies, the molar extinction coefficient epsilon increases With the Not volume d(3) and agrees with theoretical calculations using the Maxwell-Garnett effective medium theory and bulk values for the Qdot dielectric function. This demonstrates that quantum confinement has no influence on E in this spectral range, and it provides an accurate method to calculate the Qdot concentration. Around the band gap, epsilon only increases with d(1.3), and values are comparable to the epsilon of PbSe Qdots. The data are related to the oscillator strength f(if) of the band gap transition and results agree well with theoretical tight-binding calculations, predicting a linear dependence of f(if) on d. For both PbS and PbSe Qdots, the exciton lifetime tau is calculated from f(if). We find values ranging between 1 and 3 mu s, in agreement with experimental literature data from time-resolved luminescence spectroscopy. Our results provide a thorough general framework to calculate and understand the optical properties of suspended colloidal quantum dots. Most importantly, it highlights the significance of the local field factor in these systems

A import?ncia do reconhecimento das concep??es de educa??o ambiental para as pr?ticas educativas

Entering the environmental theme, we emphasize it is very important to highlight that Environmental education is listed in various contextualization situations, reflecting in the interdisciplinary field, being interconnected with several areas, both human and others. Thus, the main objective of the research is to make an analysis of educational practices focused on AE treated in different contexts, as well as the conceptions of AE in the full works of the Meeting and Dialogues with Environmental Education (EDEA). Thus, for the development of this qualitative research, we performed a review of the full EDEA works between 2011 and 2017, using the descriptor: ?educational practices?, with 69 papers found. For these we take as base the conceptions of AE namely: conservative, social ecology and political ecology as methodology of analysis. What resulted in the following frequencies: conservative (27,5%), social ecology (39,1%) and political ecology (33,3%). And to better check the educational practices of AE, we made a new search with the descriptor: ?basic education?, for which we found 18 papers, organized in non-formal education (11,1%), AE research (44,4%) and formal education (44,4%), which were analyzed in view of the categorization of conceptions. And in this regard, the different EA practices were observed, such as the questionnaire, interview, project and others. Which in a way helped us to understand the conception of EA with its educational practice of EA. Therefore, to leverage the desired social transformations about an education that comprises the formation of subjects with the potential for critical EA, the role of the teacher in the space of basic education as a mediator of knowledge is essential, driving individual and collective transformations in favor of social and environmental issues in a critical and emancipatory way.Ao adentrar na tem?tica ambiental, salientamos ser de suma import?ncia destacar que a Educa??o ambiental ? elencada em diversas situa??es de contextualiza??o, refletindo no campo interdisciplinar, sendo interligada com diversas ?reas, tanto das humanas, quanto das demais. Assim, o objetivo central da pesquisa constituise em fazer uma an?lise das pr?ticas educativas com foco na EA tratadas nos diferentes contextos, assim como as concep??es de EA nos trabalhos completos do Encontro e Di?logos com a Educa??o Ambiental (EDEA). Desse modo, para o desenvolvimento desta pesquisa qualitativa, realizamos uma revis?o nos trabalhos completos do EDEA entre 2011 e 2017, utilizando o descritor: ?pr?ticas educativas?, sendo encontrados 69 trabalhos. Para estes tomamos como base as concep??es de EA a saber: conservadora, ecologia social e ecologia pol?tica como metodologia de an?lise. O que resultou nas seguintes frequ?ncias: conservadora (27,5%), ecologia social (39,1%) e ecologia pol?tica (33,1%). E para verificar melhor as pr?ticas educativas de EA, fizemos uma nova busca com o descritor: ?educa??o b?sica?, para o qual encontramos 18 trabalhos, organizados em educa??o n?o formal (11,1%), pesquisa de EA (44,4%) e educa??o formal (44,4%), as quais foram analisadas tendo em vista a categoriza??o das concep??es. E quanto a este, foram observadas as diferentes pr?ticas de EA, a exemplo do question?rio, entrevista, projeto entre outros. O que de certa forma nos ajudou a entender a concep??o de EA com a respectiva pr?tica educativa de EA. Portanto, para alavancar as transforma??es sociais desejadas acerca de uma educa??o que compreende a forma??o de sujeitos com potencial de EA cr?tica, ? essencial o papel do professor no espa?o da educa??o b?sica como mediador do conhecimento, impulsionando as transforma??es individuais e coletivas em prol das quest?es socioambientais de forma cr?tica e emancipat?ria

Towards the Immunoproteome of Neisseria meningitidis

Despite the introduction of conjugated polysaccharide vaccines for many of the Neisseria meningitidis serogroups, neisserial infections continue to cause septicaemia and meningitis across the world. This is in part due to the difficulties in developing a, cross-protective vaccine that is effective against all serogroups, including serogroup B meningococci. Although convalescent N. meningitidis patients develop a natural long-lasting cross-protective immunity, the antigens that mediate this response remain unknown. To help define the target of this protective immunity we identified the proteins recognized by IgG in sera from meningococcal patients by a combination of 2D protein gels, western blots and mass spectrometry. Although a number of outer membrane antigens were identified the majority of the antigens were cytoplasmic, with roles in cellular processes and metabolism. When recombinant proteins were expressed and used to raise sera in mice, none of the antigens elicited a positive SBA result, however flow cytometry did demonstrate that some, including the ribosomal protein, RplY were localised to the neisserial cell surface

Rapid Research and Analysis of Local Cultural Education Partnerships

This rapid programme of research and analysis provides a detailed and up-to-date understanding of Local Cultural Education Partnerships (LCEPs) across the five Arts Council England (ACE) regions to inform future investment in LCEPs. LCEPs aim to support children and young people (CYP) in their creative potential, providing access to cultural experiences in their place (i.e., where they live, where they go to school, and where they spend their free time). The partners that make up the network of partnerships in each LCEP come from a cross-section of multiple sectors, including culture, arts, education, higher education, youth, health, criminal justice, voluntary, commercial, and creative sectors, as well as local or combined authorities. LCEPs are place-specific, and they take on many different forms that respond to local needs and interests. They are supported by ACE’s network of Bridge Organisations, who provide developmental and strategic support that is relevant to their stage of development and need. This report is based on data collected through four methods: (1) interviews with Bridge Organisations and LCEPs, (2) a national survey of LCEPs, (3) a literature review based on quarterly monitoring reports (QMRs) and ACE documents, and (4) digital mapping. From our analysis of this data, we have shared key considerations that ACE can take on in their approach to LCEPs under the following themes: Who are We? Where is the energy coming from? What is the money for? How can we learn from and with each other

Incremental bounded model checking for embedded software

Program analysis is on the brink of mainstream usage in embedded systems development. Formal verification of behavioural requirements, finding runtime errors and test case generation are some of the most common applications of automated verification tools based on bounded model checking (BMC). Existing industrial tools for embedded software use an off-the-shelf bounded model checker and apply it iteratively to verify the program with an increasing number of unwindings. This approach unnecessarily wastes time repeating work that has already been done and fails to exploit the power of incremental SAT solving. This article reports on the extension of the software model checker CBMC to support incremental BMC and its successful integration with the industrial embedded software verification tool BTC EMBEDDED TESTER. We present an extensive evaluation over large industrial embedded programs, mainly from the automotive industry. We show that incremental BMC cuts runtimes by one order of magnitude in comparison to the standard non-incremental approach, enabling the application of formal verification to large and complex embedded software. We furthermore report promising results on analysing programs with arbitrary loop structure using incremental BMC, demonstrating its applicability and potential to verify general software beyond the embedded domain