redistribution of pains and gains

Nigeria’s peasant cattle production is based in its semi-arid north. The area’s aridity becomes a major problem to cattle in the dry season. Herds are protected by bringing them down to the southern parts that are usually wetter at such times. Presence of tsetse fly in the south, particularly in the rainy season precludes sustained all year round grazing in the south. This sets the stage for migration back to the north at the onset of rains in the south. A number of social events has been observed that suggest possible change in the way this transhumance is conducted. The Fulani herders from northern Nigeria appear to be staying longer in the south. They are also turning sedentary and pressurizing local resources and farmlands more intensely leading to violent and deadly conflicts with their local farming hosts in the south. On the other hand, some southern farmers now have successful cattle production enterprises based on the tsetse fly prone Fulani cattle breeds. This study seeks to find out if these trends indicate a negatively changed northern environment that is turning more hostile to peasant cattle production and promoting greater pressures on the south. It also seeks to finds out if the trends show a positive change in the environment of southern Nigeria in terms of a changed tsetse fly habitat and decline in its populations. The study is approached through surveys involving the Fulani herdsmen operating in southern Nigeria and their host communities. Results indicate a paradigm shift in understanding of ethnic clashes in Nigeria in the light of environmental change; some positive effects of environmental change; that positive environmental change may lead to negative social impacts. They also show that internal migration in Nigeria is largely environment dependent

The Canada Catholic Church and the Indigenous Canadians of African Descent, 1867–1900

The invisibility or near absence of peoples of African descent in the Canadian Catholic Church remains a curiosity that needs exploring. There is hardly any information on why this is the case. As a matter of fact, little or no studies have been done, not even by Canadian Catholic historians, to address this concern. Furthermore, the religious experience of indigenous African Canadians is often, if not always, discussed within the context of non-Catholic, especially Baptist, religious affiliation. It is as if African Canadians are allergic to Catholicism or never existed on the Canadian soil or, if they existed, their presence and experience are not worth the attention and mention in the historical consciousness of Canadians and Canadian Catholic Church. The paper, therefore, is a precursory enquiry into this anomaly. Also it is a modest attempt to sensitize and create, in the Canadian Catholic Church and society, the necessary awareness of the anomaly and then suggest possible ways of redressing the anomaly

A Mixed Methods Exploration Of Stigma, Discrimination, And Sleep Among Those On Medication For Opioid Use Disorder

Insomnia occurs in as many as 75% of people with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD). The prevalence of insomnia is attributable to concurrent factors such as mental health disorders, chronic pain, and medication use; however the contribution of social factors is not well understood. Persistent social factors and concerns within this population include stigma and discrimination. People who use prescribed medication for OUD (MOUD) report stigma and discrimination related to OUD, MOUD, and possibly other characteristics (e.g., race, gender, socioeconomic status, and incarceration history). However, the relationship between OUD-related stigma and discrimination with insomnia and between intersectional experiences, perceptions of stigma, and discrimination among patients on MOUD are not well understood. This dissertation research is nested within the NIH HEAL funded mechanistic study (CLOUDS STUDY: Collaboration Linking Opioid Use Disorder and Sleep) whose primary goal is understanding the contributions of sleep deficiency to relapse and retention in MOUD. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the association between OUD-related stigma, and intersectional discrimination with insomnia among individuals on MOUD. Using a convergent mixed methods design, we addressed the following aims: Aim 1: Examine the associations between OUD-related stigma and intersectional discrimination with insomnia among individuals on MOUD [quantitative]. Hypothesis: OUD-related stigma and intersectional discrimination are positively correlated with insomnia severity among individuals on MOUD. Aim 2: Describe (1) how individuals perceive issues of stigma, discrimination, and sleep; (2) the intersectional phenomena of stigma and discrimination; (3) how experiences and perceptions associate with sleep [qualitative]. Aim 3: Gain a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between stigma and discrimination with insomnia among individuals on MOUD through integration of quantitative and qualitative data from Aims 1 and 2 [mixed methods].Informed by the Health Stigma and Discrimination Framework, manuscript #1 was a systematic review of original research describing associations between dimensions of stigma and sleep deficiency. There was consistent evidence that stigma, whether internalized, perceived, or anticipated, is associated with self-reported characteristics of sleep deficiency. This review highlighted important gaps in the literature which included, but were not limited to, the lack of exploration of this association among highly stigmatized populations, including those on MOUD. In manuscript #2, I report qualitative findings from 25 diverse participants on MOUD who described how they experienced intersectional stigma and discrimination and identified supports and resources that could be used to better understand and cope with the cumulative experiences of multiple forms of disadvantage. Five themes with supporting subthemes highlighted several identities that intersected with OUD. The intersection of multiple marginalized identities, which often led to discriminatory experiences, internalization of negative feelings, anticipated stigma, and shifts in self-perception. Participants also commented on recommendations for care to address the cumulative intersecting experiences of OUD. In manuscript #3, I explored (1) the relationships among OUD-related stigma, intersectional discrimination and insomnia among participants on MOUD, (2) how individuals perceived stigma, discrimination, and sleep. and (3) how individuals believed their experiences with discrimination and stigma were linked to sleep. The integration of quantitative and qualitative data led to a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between stigma, discrimination, and sleep and the intersectional phenomena of stigma and discrimination experienced by this population. Analysis revealed moderate correlations between intersectional discrimination, physical symptoms and psychological distress with insomnia severity. Participants’ descriptions of their sleep illustrated how they connected discriminatory and stigmatizing experiences to sleep. Overall, the findings of this dissertation underscore that OUD-related stigma is a complex and nuanced concept. Study findings add to the growing body of literature linking intersectional discrimination, physical symptoms, and psychological distress with insomnia in people on MOUD. These findings may help to inform future intervention development aimed at advancing anti-discrimination efforts to improve sleep outcomes among those with OUD

African Catholicism and the Diaspora Phenomenon: A Socio-Political Analysis of African Priests in the Diaspora

Religious agents, including Catholic priests, are no exception with regards to involvement in the diaspora phenomenon. Among them, especially in the most recent time, are those who, for the purposes of this paper, are identified as African Catholic priest-diasporas (African priest diasporas, for short); that is, those Catholic priests from Africa who, for a variety of reasons, relocated from the continent to reside in a foreign country where they exercise their priestly ministry. This new and growing group of diasporas obviously forms part of the African Diasporas -a group African Union (AU) considers as Africa\u27s sixth region (Auma, 2009). The paper argues that the specificity of the African priest-diasporas cannot be told and understood outside of a context, namely: the situation of African Catholicism in the face of the continent\u27s socio-political and economic predicaments

Optimal Controller Tuning Technique for a First-Order Process with Time Delay

We present a controller tuning strategy for first-order plus time delay (FOPTD) processes, where the time delay in the model is approximated using the Pad\'e function. Using Routh-Hurwitz stability analysis, we derive the gain that gives rise to desirable PID controller settings. The resulting PID controller, now correctly tuned, produces satisfactory closed-loop behavior and stabilizes the first-order plant. Our proposed technique eliminates the dead-time component in the model and results in a minimum-phase system with all of its poles and zeros in the left-half $s$-plane. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, we present control simulation results from an in-depth performance comparison between our technique and other established model-based strategies used for the control of time-delayed systems. These results prove that, for the FOPTD model, Pad\'e approximation eliminates the undesirable effects of the time delay and promises a faster tracking performance superior to conventional model-based controllers.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, and 7 table

Reflective Student Engagement: A Necessity for Effective ODL Delivery

PCF10 Sub-theme: Fostering Lifelong Learning // Education providers need to be effectively engaged with their students in order to better understand their expectations and therefore tailor their deliveries to meet their needs accordingly. In a normal conventional, face-to-face small class arrangement, this is feasible and even sufficient but not so in an era of mass education delivered through open and distance learning method coupled with student diversity and less homogeneity in their class composition. This arrangement presents a challenge for teachers to understand the peculiarities and expectations of their students. To achieve better inclusive engagement with students and to deliver learning content based on their expectations, a more formal means to understand students as learners becomes necessary. This calls for a method that can enable teachers to learn and understand students’ expectations of teaching, learning and assessment as well as their conceptions and views of learning, their belief system and their reflective thinking capabilities. Survey was used in this study and 100 students of National Open University of Nigeria, were randomly selected. Sixteen item questionnaire administered with 56 returns. Results showed effective engagement of students occurs through class participation, interaction and collaboration with peers, attentiveness in class activity, emotional connection – and were found necessary for effective open and distance learning delivery. Management needs to also make deliberate effort to enhance students’ engagement by being responsive to their (students’) needs as expressed from time to time, such as extra-curricular activities and creation of physical interaction between and among staff and faculty. // Paper ID 111

Safe Collective Control under Noisy Inputs and Competing Constraints via Non-Smooth Barrier Functions

We consider the problem of safely coordinating ensembles of identical autonomous agents to conduct complex missions with conflicting safety requirements and under noisy control inputs. Using non-smooth control barrier functions (CBFs) and stochastic model-predictive control as springboards, and by adopting an extrinsic approach where the ensemble is treated as a unified dynamic entity, we devise a method to synthesize safety-aware control inputs for uncertain collectives. Drawing upon stochastic CBF theory and recent developments in Boolean CBF composition, our method proceeds by smoothing a Boolean-composed CBF and solving a stochastic optimization problem where each agent's forcing term is restricted to the affine subspace of control inputs certified by the combined CBF. For the smoothing step, we employ a polynomial approximation scheme, providing evidence for its advantage in generating more conservative yet sufficiently-filtered control inputs than the smoother but more aggressive equivalents produced from an approximation technique based on the log-sum-exp function. To further demonstrate the utility of the proposed method, we present an upper bound for the expected CBF approximation error, along with results from simulations of a single-integrator collective under velocity perturbations. Lastly, we compare these results with those obtained using a naive state-feedback controller lacking safety filters.Comment: Accepted to the 2024 European Control Conference. See Section VI.B (in particular, Theorem 1, Proposition 2, and Remark 2) for updates incorporating new results (from Reference 3) on almost-sure safety of ZCBF

Preliminary phytochemical and antimicrobial screening of 50 medicinal plants from Nigeria

Ethanolic extracts of 50 plant species were screened for their antimicrobial activity against Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans. The results indicated that of the 50 plant extracts, 28 plant extracts inhibited the growth of one or more test pathogens. Four plant extracts showed a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. Phytochemical investigation revealed the presence of tannins, saponins, alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids and essential oils

Socioeconomic Position and DNA Methylation Age Acceleration across the Lifecourse.

Accelerated DNA methylation age is linked to all-cause mortality and environmental factors, but studies of associations with socioeconomic position are limited. Studies generally use small selected samples, and it is unclear how findings with two commonly used methylation age calculations (Horvath and Hannum) translate to general population samples including younger and older adults. In 1099 UK adults aged 28-98 y in 2011-12, we assessed the relationship of Horvath and Hannum DNA methylation age acceleration with a range of social position measures: current income and employment, education, income and unemployment across a 12-year period, and childhood social class. Accounting for confounders, participants less advantaged in childhood were epigenetically 'older' as adults: compared to participants with professional/managerial parents, Hannum age was 1.07 years higher (95% confidence interval (CI):0.20-1.94) for those with parents in semi-skilled/unskilled occupations, and 1.85 years higher (95%CI:0.67-3.02) for participants without a working parent at age 14. No other robust associations were seen. Results accord with research implicating early life circumstances as critical for DNA methylation age in adulthood. Since methylation age acceleration as measured by the Horvath and Hannum estimators appears strongly linked to chronological age, research examining associations with the social environment must take steps to avoid age-related confounding