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Whistleblowing Policy and Anti-Corruption Struggle in Nigeria: An Overview
Get PDFCorruption is a hidden activity that is difficult to discover unless reported. Its secretive nature makes it impossible to defeat given all the measures that have been adopted across the globe. However, one of the important tools increasingly used around the world today to prevent and uncover corruption in both public and private sectors is whistleblowing. This paper, therefore, focuses on the role of whistleblowing policy in fighting corruption in Nigeria. Within the short period, the policy was introduced, it has yielded considerable positive outcome resulting in the discovery and recovery of looted public resources, as well as prosecution of culprits. However, this policy has not yet been backed by any legislation. This paper, therefore, concludes that for the policy to thrive, the legislature should pass the proposed Whistleblower Protection Bill into law. This will protect whistleblowers from any reprisals and encourage them to disclose more information
The Impulsive Upsurge of Yahoo-Yahoo in The 21st Century in Nigeria: Islamic Perspective
Get PDFThe bizarre upsurge of yahoo-yahoo in this 21st century in Nigeria is alarming and calls for academic attention, as such more than 40% undergraduates and up to 60% graduates without dependable job ware recruited into kleptomania and fraudster industry. The most abnormal phase of it is the initiation of secondary school students of between 15-22 years into this criminal guile. This study discovered that, both male and female, preschooler and graduate, adolescent and aged, educated and even uneducated people have inducted to the game as far as they can browse internet through phone or Laptop. The objectives of this study are to make Islāmic point of view with Qur’ānic justification towards fraud and theft that predominant in Nigeria as known to the people especially the mislead youth and also to encourage federal government to take quick step in finding solution to the problem of unemployment in Nigeria. In order to achieve this aim, thematic and analytical method employed. This paper finds that 419 and larceny of the olden days has reshuffled their name as yahoo-yahoo in the form of a game for educated elite played through the aid of internet accessibility. The paper concluded on the fact that two major reasons bring about the issue of yahoo-yahoo includes; the irate belief that colonial master had brutally enslaved their great grandfather in return they wanted to collect their entitlement, while others have erroneous confidence that they wanted to retrieve the money which European people borrow from their great grandfather
Arterial offset optimization considering the delay and emission of platoon: A case study in Beijing
No full textThe effective setting of offsets between intersections on arterial roads can greatly reduce the travel time of vehicles through intersections. However, coordinated control systems of urban arterial roads often do not achieve the desired effect. On the contrary, they are very likely to increase the traffic congestion on arterial roads, resulting in more delays of the platoon with more exhaust emissions, if the coordinated control system does not have effective settings. Meanwhile, taking into account increasing environmental pollution, measures are needed to solve the conflict between environmental and traffic management. Thus, in order to ensure the smooth flow of urban arterial roads while considering the environment, this paper develops a bi-objective offset optimization model, with reducing delays of the platoon on arterial roads as the primary objective, and reducing exhaust emissions as the secondary objective. The proposed bi-objective model is based on the division of platoon operating modes on arterial roads, and more pollutant types, including NOx, HC, and CO, are considered when measuring environmental impact. Further, the modified hierarchical method, combining the branch and bound approach with the introductions of a relaxation coefficient, is employed to solve the model. By introducing a relaxation coefficient, the modified hierarchical method overcomes the defects of the traditional one. Finally, Xi Dajie Road in Beijing was taken as an example. The results showed that the bi-objective offset optimization model, considering both the delays and emissions of the platoon reduced delays by up to 20% and emissions by 7% compared with the existing timing plan. If compared with the offset optimization model considering delays only, such a model increases delays no more than 3% and reduces emissions by 6%
Theory and simulation of spectral line broadening by exoplanetary atmospheric haze
Get PDFAtmospheric haze is a leading candidate for opacity and lack of prominent features in expolanetary spectra, as well as in the atmospheres of Solar system planets, satellites, and comets. Exoplanetary transmission spectra, which carry information about how the planetary atmospheres become opaque to stellar light in transit, often show broad absorption in the region of wavelengths corresponding to spectral lines of sodium, potassium, and water. We develop a detailed atomistic model, describing interactions of atomic or molecular radiators with dust and atmospheric haze particulates. This model incorporates a realistic structure of haze particulates from small nano-sized seed particles up to submicron irregularly shaped aggregates and accounting for both pairwise collisions between the radiator and haze perturbers, and quasistatic mean-field shift of atomic levels in haze environments. This formalism can explain large flattening of absorption and emission spectra in hazy atmospheres and shows how the radiator - haze particle interaction affects the absorption spectral shape in the wings of spectral lines and near their centres. The theory can, in principle, account for nearly all realistic structure, density, size, and chemical composition of haze particulates. We illustrate the utility of the method by computing shift and broadening of the emission spectra of the Na I D lines in haze environment, formed by Ar nano-clusters. Argon is used as the illustrative haze constituent only because of the simplicity of closed-shell atoms and their clusters for quantum mechanical calculations of interaction between radiator and nano-sized haze particles. The elegance and generality of the proposed model should make it amenable to a broad community of users in astrophysics and chemistry
Attitudes, Practices and Knowledge of Communities Towards Climate Change Around Lake Mburo National Park Uganda: A Gender Centered Analysis
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The study was done to assess gender dimensions in relation to climate change attitudes and adaptation strategies among small holder crop farmers, pastoralists and ago-pastoralists of Isingiro and Kiruhura districts, among communities surrounding Lake Mburo National Park in Uganda. The study contributes to the theoretical and conceptual discourse on climate change and varied gender responses. Through the lenses of gender socialization, the study reviewed men and women’s attitudinal responses to climate change: a pragmatic research paradigm was used based on a thematic review model. Participatory methods and a questionnaire were used to collect data. Both sexes (99.5%) observed signs of climate change. The major causes of climate change were cutting of trees (39%, p\u3c0.001), drainage of swamps (21.9%, p\u3c0.01), use of solar panels (16.7%) and a curse from God (14.3%). More men (46.9%) than women (31.2%) (p\u3c0.001) said that cutting of trees was the cause of climate change. A highly significant (p=0.003) more women (19.4%) said the curse from God was a cause. The other causes mentioned had no gender differences. The major observed ecological effect of climate change was drought (39%, p\u3c0.001), followed by shifts of crop growing seasons (21.9%, p=0.01), increase in crop diseases and pests (13.5%) and soil erosion (11.3%). Significantly (p=0.0001) more men (18.4%) said soil erosion was the ecological effect of climate change than women (4.4%). There were no significant differences in gender responses identifying coping mechanisms to deal with the effects of climate change. The findings indicate that there were no salient climate change coping strategies adopted. On a low scale, communities, migrated to the neighboring districts and around LMNP in search of pasture and water; found alternative sources of income, sold cattle at salvage prices and reduced daily meals taken. In conclusion, the communities were aware that there was climate change but had no sustainable coping strategies adopted; hence the study recommends communal education on how to cope with climate change effects using a gender approach
Organizational Virtuousness: The Customers’ Perspective
Get PDFThis paper reviews the literature on organizational virtues to construct a concept of organizational virtuousness from the perspective of customers. Definitions of organizational virtuousness are missing important virtues and fail to consider the views of customers, who benefit from virtuous organizations, at least as asserted by the extant literature. This paper is theoretical, not empirical. The ideas come from an array of disciplines and include virtues not presently considered in the organizational virtue literature. In addition, the paper emphasizes the perspectives of customers, a dimension missing from existing studies
Strategic Behavior of Cognitive Radio Networks with Different Information
No full textThe equilibrium joining probabilities for a single primary user (PU) and secondary users (SUs) in the case of no queue length information, and the equilibrium Nash balance thresholds for PU and SUs to join the system in the cases of partial queue length information and full queue length information observed by PU and SUs are investigated in a cognitive radio system. PU stochastically sends PU requests and each SU is assumed to only carry one SU request. Whenever a PU (or an SU) request is completed, a reward is issued to the PU (or the SU). However, a holding cost is charged also for each SU and PU during their average sojourn time in the system respectively. Both of PU requests and SU requests are selfish in this research and their objectives are to maximize their own benefit. Our major conclusion includes a threshold probability value for PU (or SU) to join the system identified for the case of no queue length information, a Nash balance PU (SU) threshold value is determined for the case of partial queue length information; and the multi-dimensional Nash balance threshold is established for the case of full queue length information. These Nash balance threshold integer values depend on not only the Nash Balance PU-threshold value but also the specific number of SU requests in the system at that arriving time. In addition, we discuss the sensibility of input parameters to the obtained equilibrium joining probabilities and Nash balance thresholds. We mathematically verify that SUs\u27 equilibrium joining probability does not necessarily increase with the transmission rate of PU in no queue length information case and observe numerically that the Nash balance thresholds adopted by an arriving SU are fickle with the change of PU\u27s transmission rate in both of partial and full queue length information cases. Our results and observations provide a guideline and important managerial insights in making decisions with strategic users in the design of CRNs
Preserving privacy in data analytics
Get PDFData Analytics is becoming an essential business tool for many data intensive companies and organizations. However, the increased use of such methods comes with the threat of data disclosure. Privacy-preserving methods have been developed with varying degrees of efficiency with the main goal of protecting individuals\u27 privacy. This tutorial aims at presenting models and techniques of preserving privacy in machine learning and data mining
Determining best practices for management of bacteriuria in spinal cord injury: Protocol for a mixed-methods study
Get PDFBackground: Bacteriuria, either asymptomatic (ASB) or symptomatic, urinary tract infection (UTI), is common in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI). Current Veterans Health Administration (VHA) guidelines recommend a screening urinalysis and urine culture for every veteran with SCI during annual evaluation, even when asymptomatic, which is contrary to other national guidelines. Our preliminary data suggest that a positive urine culture (even without signs or symptoms of infection) drives antibiotic use. Objective: Through a series of innovative studies utilizing mixed methods, administrative databases, and focus groups, we will gain further knowledge about the attitudes driving current urine testing practices during the annual exam, as well as quantitative data on the clinical outcomes of these practices. Methods: Aim 1 will identify patient, provider, and facility factors driving bacteriuria testing and subsequent antibiotic use after the SCI annual evaluation through qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys. Aim 2 will use national VHA databases to identify the predictors of urine testing and subsequent antibiotic use during the annual examination and compare the clinical outcomes of those who received antibiotics with those who did not. Aim 3 will use the information gathered from the previous 2 aims to develop the Test Smart, Treat Smart intervention, a combination of patient and provider education and resources that will help stakeholders have informed conversations about urine testing and antibiotic use; feasibility will be tested at a single site. Results: This protocol received institutional review board and VHA Research and Development approval in July 2017, and Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development funding started on November 2017. As of submission of this manuscript, 10/15 (67%) of the target goal of provider interviews were complete, and 77/100 (77%) of the goal of surveys. With regard to patients, 5/15 (33%) of the target goal of interviews were complete, and 20/100 (20%) of the target goal of surveys had been completed. Preliminary analyses are ongoing; the study team plans to present these results in April 2019. Database analyses for aim 2 will begin in January 2019. Conclusions: The negative consequences of antibiotic overuse and antibiotic resistance are well-documented and have national and even global implications. This study will develop an intervention aimed to educate stakeholders on evidence-based management of ASB and UTI and guide antibiotic stewardship in this high-risk population. The next step will be to refine the intervention and test its feasibility and effectiveness at multiple sites as well as reform policy for management of this common but burdensome condition
Implications of Combination of Operating Systems and Programming Languages on Parallel Programming Efficiency
Get PDFThere are a number of programming languages and operating systems, and the appropriate selection of the two depends on the type of application. The effective application of parallel programming depends on a number of factors such as hardware and software, the application type, and the cost. At the micro level, understanding the concepts of threading, processors, and memory are also critical factors in deciding the type of parallel programming to use. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of different combinations of operating systems and programming languages on the efficiency of parallel programming