Academia Research

The Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the 9th of December 2019 reportedly called on the Nigerian executive arm of government to declare a state of emergency in the nation's power sector. The third figure in Nigeria's helm of power described the power sector privatisation as a fraud and called for a review of the scheme. Although the national assembly is yet to take a courageous stand, the current opinion of the senate president clearly suggests that the Nigerian government is seriously faced with the challenge of taking a major decision of revisiting the power sector privatisation scheme. This is more so because the power sector is currently in shambles and the private investors managing the sector seem to be overwhelmed by the onerous task which they signed to perform since 2013. This research work carefully juxtaposes the arguments for and against the option of de-privatising the power sector and finds that deprivatisation may not provide a lasting solution. The researcher however recommends that more efforts should be channeled towards investing in the nation's rich renewable energy resources as the surest way of solving the quagmire presently trailing the nation's power sector. 1

This study is part of an ongoing investigation into what we would like to identify as a unique, and so far underexplored, form of knowledge dissemination by means of online academic bionotes. By focusing on academic online identity construction, we intend to highlight the core discursive mechanisms underlying such a practice as well as differentiate specific features from more familiar ones characterising general social networking public profiles (Fitzpatrick 2015). Although a relatively new convention in the academic workplace, the practice of scholars crafting their own academic identity through online personal branding has been gaining momentum during the past decade. This is mainly due to the rapidly changing world of work and the proliferation of online social networking sites (SNS) which have blurred the boundaries between work and personal lives (Garzone 2015; Duffy/Pooley 2017). With the Web becoming a workplace, where involvement in networking practices and the construction of a social presence are no longer a choice, scholars are now seriously reflecting on the importance of defining personal branding tools for the dual purpose of individual advancement and knowledge dissemination.
Consequently, by exploring scholarly knowledge sharing practices occurring on academic SNSs, the main aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which the social construction of academic identity overlaps and interdiscursively blends together with previously investigated and more traditional processes of disciplinary knowledge dissemination (KD) (Hyland 2012a, 2015). This study, in fact, is taking a broader approach to KD by using Hyland’s own perspective as a starting point, especially when he argues that: "In pursuing their professional goals and constructing knowledge, academics engage with others, and because of this, discourses carry assumptions about knowledge, relationships and how this should be structured and negotiated" (Hyland 2012a: 175).
Hence, our approach explores these renegotiated discourses as enacted by renewed digital knowledge sharing practices such as those occurring in dynamic Web 3.0 environments. To this end, the investigation is based on the analysis of a multimodal corpus comprising a collection of profiles crafted by university scholars and posted on the academic social networking site (ASNS) known as Acadmia.edu. This platform, which is not an educationally affiliated organization, foregrounds the entrepreneurial mission of “accelerating the world’s research”3 as it is essentially designed for academics whose main intention is to share research papers and interests as well as other general information concerning affiliation and academic engagements. Also part of Academia.edu’s mission is to afford scholars the opportunity to monitor the impact of their research through deep analytics (Price 2012) while tracking the work of other academics they choose to follow (Thelwall/Kousha 2014). Established in 2008 in San Francisco by Richard Price as part of the Open Science movement, to date, Academia.edu is reported having nearly 31,000,000 registered account-holders contributing over 20 million papers and attracting nearly 26 million unique visitors a month.
Against this backdrop, it is quite evident that data collected from ASNSs are of major interest for linguistic exploration, mainly owing to the impact that the above-mentioned academic social networking practices may have on how language is devised and packaged in order to facilitate knowledge dissemination. For the purpose of shedding light on this still grey area of language innovation, the online profiles collected from the Academia.edu site are the object of this study as they comprise multimodal instantiations of both knowledge dissemination and self-branding resources.

Mars in unearthly, unchartered, unknown & yet attracts all of humanity. The hazards of the endeavor are overwhelmed by the hype & hope surrounding the enterprise. A variety of individuals, private companies, commercial firms and national space agencies are engrossed in efforts at landing & inhabiting Mars. However, these efforts are disjoint and there exists little or no coordination. The aspirations as also hazards are immense, the resources scarce & costly. Consequently, left ungoverned, the potential for conflict in space exploration is high. There exists a critical need to regulate and coordinate affairs in this area right now when the technologies and legislation are yet immature. This calls for a credible institutionalized governance structure. This paper proposes an expansion of the existing United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) to take on the mantle of space exploration governance and to continue with incremental progressions later.

The Singapore government has traditionally invested heavily in, and focused on, the development of the hard sciences since gaining independence in 1965. This bode well for the fate of sustainability studies as the state, in the initial decades, focused heavily on performance legitimacy, emphasising issues of survivability and economic progress. With the country now at the top of global charts on many rankings on economic prosperity, the city-state has steadily begun to examine issues of nation-building rather than state-building. This can be attributed, in part, to the paradox of soft authoritarian regimes that invest heavily in human capital, because in the long run, an educated electorate will want, as active and informed citizens, to participate effectively in politics. The social sciences are slowly evolving to look at the Singapore model from a comparative perspective, moving away from the dominant narrative of “Singaporean exceptionalism”, which overstates the uniqueness of the city-state.

<strong>For severely overweight individuals</strong> that have failed to see results from diet and exercise alone, weight-loss surgery has become the safest and Kirstie Alley Diet most effective means of achieving significant weight loss. In fact, studies have shown that with diet and exercise alone, nearly 95% of obese patients will gain all the lost weight back within 5 years. Studies show that most patients that undergo weight-loss surgery will lose between 50-70% of their excess body weight within the first three years following their procedure. Those that undergo gastric bypass surgery will lose excess body weight more rapidly in the first 12 months than those that choose LAP-BAND surgery. However, gastric bypass patients typically experience a greater number of complications and side effects than LAP-BAND patients, as the LAP-BAND procedure allows for more gradual and natural long-term weight loss. <strong>From a clinical perspective, a weight-loss surgery</strong> is considered Kirstie Alley Diet successful when the patient loses at least 50% of their excess body weight and keeps the weight off for at least five years. While important lifestyle changes need to be made to ensure that the weight loss is maintained in the long term, studies have shown that most weight loss surgery patients are able to maintain a 50-60% loss of excess body weight 10 years after the surgical procedure. While patients will certainly look and feel better after weight-loss Kirstie Alley Diet surgery, there are also numerous health benefits associated with successful weight loss. In most cases, health conditions that develop as a result of excessive body weight or are worsened by obesity can be improved upon or, in some cases, remedied by weight-loss surgery. <strong>But there are other ways to measuring success with weight-loss</strong> surgery, like the Kirstie Alley Diet LAP-BAND System. For instance, many weight loss surgery patients take great pride in being able to perform certain activities that may not have been possible fo [...]

This article theorizes the functional relationship between the human components (i.e., scholars) and non-human components (i.e., structural configurations) of academic domains. It is organized around the following question: in what ways have scholars formed and been formed by the structural configurations of their academic domain? The article uses as a case study the academic domain of education and technology to examine this question. Its authorship approach is innovative, with a worldwide collection of academics (99 authors) collaborating to address the proposed question based on their reflections on daily social and academic practices. This collaboration followed a three-round process of contributions via email. Analysis of these scholars’ reflective accounts was carried out, and a theoretical proposition was established from this analysis. The proposition is of a mutual (yet not necessarily balanced) power (and therefore political) relationship between the human and non-human co...

At the time of writing, the reach of #MeToo continues unfolding. Frank revelations about experiences of sexual harassment and sexual assault reach well into the academic sphere, with stories emerging across disciplines, regions, and statuses within the academy. The momentum and urgency of this moment carries with it the potential for seriously addressing harassment, including harassment that occurs at academic conferences. In this article I seek to acknowledge experiences of harassment at conferences and consider the intersections of academic power dynamics and systems of oppression and advantage. I examine the ways in which conference communities have taken action to prevent and respond to harassment, and look to how we can resist and reject academic cultures in which harassment is allowed to thrive.

Lesbians have limited visibility or representation in educational research, and there has been even less consideration of the ways that lesbians’ experiences are racialized. Using a methodological approach that entwines Karen Barad’s concept of queer temporalities with Kimberlé Crenshaw’s discussion of single-axis intersectionality, this paper uses critical autoethnography to offer narrative examinations of the author’s queerness as constantly enmeshed with her Whiteness. The author considers the degrees to which being situated in the socio-politically conservative U.S. South have influenced her experiences as a queer lesbian academic, even as White privilege has, intentionally and unintentionally, shaped her scholarship.

These poems, composed in Somali and in English, provide a poetic reflection of the recently emerged debate on the theme of Caddaan Studies which means "White Studies". The criticism and counter-criticism contained in the debate dug so deep into life nerve of Somali Studies that over a thousand people participated. The poems, under the title "Inaugurating Caddaan Studies" were composed with a critical observation of the debate.

This study contemplates one facet of academic motherhood through the use of artful research approaches in qualitative research to examine the (im)balance of being a mother writing academic works while raising and caring for a young child, as presented in an online hashtag Facebook campaign, #amwritingwithbaby. Specifically, this study uses an analysis of online posts and arts-based representations of findings through a comparison of narrative, poem, and word clouds. Through using popular media for representing the findings, this study helps address the accessibility of artful inquiry into the growing body of works seeking equity for women and mothers in academia.

This article theorizes the functional relationship between the human components (i.e., scholars) and non-human components (i.e., structural configurations) of academic domains. It is organized around the following question: in what ways have scholars formed and been formed by the structural configurations of their academic domain? The article uses as a case study the academic domain of education and technology to examine this question. Its authorship approach is innovative, with a worldwide collection of academics (99 authors) collaborating to address the proposed question based on their reflections on daily social and academic practices. This collaboration followed a three-round process of contributions via email. Analysis of these scholars’ reflective accounts was carried out, and a theoretical proposition was established from this analysis. The proposition is of a mutual (yet not necessarily balanced) power (and therefore political) relationship between the human and non-human co...

Our intent is to share the tenets/models of the United States and create an initiative for universities in China; we want to mirror the US and encourage China’s students to pursue graduate or undergraduate degrees in Public Administration (in their country or as visiting scholars to the US). 

Our country is one where freedom of speech makes it possible for degree candidates to enter public service and express their views to better the opportunities in education, health and welfare for the citizenry.

This article theorizes the functional relationship between the human components (i.e., scholars) and non-human components (i.e., structural configurations) of academic domains. It is organized around the following question: in what ways have scholars formed and been formed by the structural configurations of their academic domain? The article uses as a case study the academic domain of education and technology to examine this question. Its authorship approach is innovative, with a worldwide collection of academics (99 authors) collaborating to address the proposed question based on their reflections on daily social and academic practices. This collaboration followed a three-round process of contributions via email. Analysis of these scholars’ reflective accounts was carried out, and a theoretical proposition was established from this analysis. The proposition is of a mutual (yet not necessarily balanced) power (and therefore political) relationship between the human and non-human co...

Since the Alma Ata declaration of 1978, Community participation (CP) has been recognized as one of the core strategies of achieving the goals of Health for All (HFA). The benefits of CP are numerous to the communities, the health systems and Governments, This review article described the nature and dimensions of Community Participation (CP) and its role and scope in successful implementation of different components of Primary Health Care. With the near collapse of PHC system in Nigeria, health care systems had suffered with most emphasis on curative health care that does not involve inputs from the local communities. Community participation is not without challenges but most are surmountable, thus it is important to appreciate the various levels in Nigeria in order to be able to operationalize CP towards realizing of set goals and objective.

While student parents now represent a significant proportion of the higher education population in England, this group has been given limited consideration in policy circles. Using a social constructivist and feminist theoretical framework, this paper draws on a research project investigating the role of higher education policies in supporting student parents in England. It focuses on findings from 40 interviews conducted with student parents enrolled on university programmes. It shows that, in the context of the default construction of the university student as carefree, student parents often describe their experience of navigating academia as a struggle, in which time-related, financial, health and emotional problems prevail. However, the stories they tell also emphasise the benefits associated with their dual status. By doing so, they resist the discourse of deficit typically applied to ‘non traditional’ students and produce a counter-discourse that disturbs the long-lived binary opposition between care and academia.

This article theorizes the functional relationship between the human components (i.e., scholars) and non-human components (i.e., structural configurations) of academic domains. It is organized around the following question: in what ways have scholars formed and been formed by the structural configurations of their academic domain? The article uses as a case study the academic domain of education and technology to examine this question. Its authorship approach is innovative, with a worldwide collection of academics (99 authors) collaborating to address the proposed question based on their reflections on daily social and academic practices. This collaboration followed a three-round process of contributions via email. Analysis of these scholars’ reflective accounts was carried out, and a theoretical proposition was established from this analysis. The proposition is of a mutual (yet not necessarily balanced) power (and therefore political) relationship between the human and non-human co...

When we talk about education , are more uncertainties than certainties , because the social context tends to change rapidly in a world increasingly attached to globalization and characterized primarily by the influence of education on and information science and technology as the basic tools of the XXI century.

This study investigates the determinants of FDI inflows in sixteen Central and Eastern European (CEEC) by incorporating the traditional factors (GDP size and trade openness) with economic freedoms over the period 1996-2009. The study uses the composite economic freedoms index of the Heritage Foundation, which has ten subcomponents. The study also identifies whether and how the impact of the ten subcomponents of the economic freedoms index differs. The estimation results verify the positive and economically significant role of GDP size, openness, and economic freedoms on FDI inflows in the CEEC. The results also reveal the existence of notable differences in the impact of the subcomponents of the economic freedoms on FDI inflows. According the findings, trade and fiscal freedoms have remarkably higher impact than the other subcomponents of the economic freedoms. Such a finding would help policy makers in the decision making process of which components of the economic freedoms should ...

" Vinasse " is an aqueous effluent of sugar refinery. It is largely made up of water, organic matter, and mineral salts. It represents a considerable source of potassium (average 9.37 g/L) for plants and its organic matter content and also improves the fertility of the soil. A study showed that in spite of its strong acidity (pH of 4.5 on

This study investigated the extent to which students  have access to academic advising and counselling in South East Universities in Nigeria. The subjects for the study comprise 10,800 students drawn from the nine universities in the South East ,Nigeria. The instrument was validated by two experts in Guidance and Counselling one from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka and another one from Ebonyi State University, Abakiliki all in Nigeria. A test-retest method of reliability was used and a reliablity co-efficient of 0.83 was obtained. Mean scores and z- test statistics were used in data analysis. The result included that  there is no significant impact of academic advising and counselling services from six out of nine universities studied. Based on the findings  of the study, it was recommended that Government should provide counseling centers in all the Universities to avail the students of academic advising and counselling for better academic performance amongst others

Summary The research activity of social work academics in the UK has been of interest and concern amongst academics and research funders. Multiple initiatives have been implemented to develop social work research activity, yet research by social work academics remains limited, hindered by lack of time, support infrastructures, funding and training. Through the use of a mixed-methods cross-sectional survey ( N = 200) and follow-up individual interviews ( N = 11), this study reports on the factors that were found to contribute to or impede the amount of time that social work academics reported spending on research. Findings The results from the survey indicated that 73% of respondents were research active. Bivariate analysis revealed that academics spent less time on research and teaching, and more time on administration than expected by their employing universities. Multivariate analysis found that less time spent on administration and teaching, more university supports, and being fr...

It is common to hear about academics’ personal lives in terms of a lack. We know, for instance, that academics have fewer children, marry less, and work longer hours than those in other ‘professions’ (Mason et al. 2013; NTEU 2015). The growing population of precariously employed academics is understood as especially afflicted, with couples and families needing to move or separate for work, and living with low, irregular pay and limited or no leave. These issues disproportionately impact women, and particularly young women, as this group is overrepresented in precarious academia (May et al. 2013).

This article theorizes the functional relationship between the human components (i.e., scholars) and non-human components (i.e., structural configurations) of academic domains. It is organized around the following question: in what ways have scholars formed and been formed by the structural configurations of their academic domain? The article uses as a case study the academic domain of education and technology to examine this question. Its authorship approach is innovative, with a worldwide collection of academics (99 authors) collaborating to address the proposed question based on their reflections on daily social and academic practices. This collaboration followed a three-round process of contributions via email. Analysis of these scholars’ reflective accounts was carried out, and a theoretical proposition was established from this analysis. The proposition is of a mutual (yet not necessarily balanced) power (and therefore political) relationship between the human and non-human co...