Public health financing,environmental quality,and the quality of life in Nigeria

This study explores the relationship between health financing, environmental quality, and the quality of life in Nigeria. The Bayer and Hanck cointegration test affirms cointegration. Findings further reveal that CO₂ emissions have no meaningful impact on life expectancy in the short run. In the long run, urbanization significantly deteriorates the quality of life. Also, public health expenditure has not contributed meaningfully to the quality of life. The study discovers no evidence of a feedback causality, but a one‐way causality flowing from urbanization to CO₂ emissions. Policies that can enhance a sustainable environment and improve the quality of life are discussed.     

Cytochrome b based genetic differentiation of Indian wild pig (Sus scrofa cristatus) and domestic pig (Sus scrofa domestica) and its use in wildlife forensics

The Indian wild pig (Sus scrofa cristatus) is a protected species and listed in the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The wild pig is often hunted illegally and sold in market as meat warranting punishment under law. To avoid confusion in identification of these two subspecies during wildlife forensic examinations, we describe genetic differentiation of Indian wild and domestic pigs using a molecular technique. Analysis of sequence generated from the partial fragment (421 bp) of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cytochrome b (Cyt b) gene exhibited unambiguous (> 3%) genetic variation between Indian wild and domestic pigs. We observed nine forensically informative nucleotide sequence (FINS) variations between Indian wild and domestic pigs. The overall genetic variation described in this study is helpful in forensic identification of the biological samples of wild and domestic pigs. It also helped in differentiating the Indian wild pig from other wild pig races. This study indicates that domestic pigs in India are not descendent of the Indian wild pig, however; they are closer to the other wild pig races found in Asia and Europe.     

The meaning of post-apartheid Zulu media

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between certain South African media corporations, growing post-apartheid Zulu media platforms, the size and diversity of Zulu-speaking media consumers, and the historical socio-cultural construction of ‘Zuluness’. This relationship, this author observes, manifests largely through media corporations’ increasing recognition of Zulu people's pride in Zulu (i.e. the language) and ‘Zuluness’ – all of which are historical products of various forms of socialisation. Coopting this pride, profit-driven media corporations are commodifying Zulu and ‘Zuluness’. This commodification via the establishment of Zulu media outlets is paradoxical: 1) it is a transformation of a public and open Zulu cultural sense of ‘being’ into institutionally determined commodities exchangeable for revenue, for the ultimate benefit of media owners other than the masses of Zulus themselves; 2) it is a form of commoditisation that gives Zulu a linguistic profile that has historically been accorded only to English and Afrikaans. This article's argument is further briefly articulated through various intellectual frames: Graham Murdoch and Peter Golding's conceptualisation of critical political economy of communications and culture (2005); John and Jean Comaroff's anthropological analysis of commercialisation of ethnicity (2009); and, for South African specificity and precedent, through Herman Wasserman's reading of Afrikaans media corporations’ commercialisation of Afrikaans language and identity. Then the question is: What does the explored relationship mean for South Africa's multilingualism?     

Migration decision from Bangladesh: permanent versus temporary

More than 50% of the total migration from Bangladesh occurred from Sylhet, located to northern part of the country since the middle of the last century. This paper provides an empirical distinction between the temporary migrants (Bangladeshi citizens engaged in earning aboard) and the permanent migrants (those who have the dual citizenship) based on their cost conditions, earnings, and utilization of remittances in their country of origin. Temporary migrants’ educational status, per capita income allocation to family members, work experience before migration, source of income and income range are much lower compared with the permanent migrants. But, the dependency ratio, contribution to the family, remittances, risk etc. are higher for the permanent migrants than the temporary migrants. Cost of migration and the migration decision are inversely related. Migration costs determine individual’s decision to migrate permanently or temporarily. Our results suggest that higher migration cost reduces the probability of permanent migration.     

Wavelet Analysis of Resultant Velocity Belonging to Genuine and Forged Signatures

This study presents a wavelet analysis of resultant velocity features belonging to genuine and forged groups of signature sample. Signatures of individuals were initially classified based on visual human perceptions of their relative sizes, complexities, and legibilities of the genuine counterparts. Then, the resultant velocity was extracted and modeled through wavelet analysis from each sample. The wavelet signal was decomposed into several layers based on maximum overlap discrete wavelet transform (MODWT). Next, the zero crossing rate features were calculated from all the high wavelet sub‐bands. A total of seven hypotheses were then tested using a two‐way ANOVA testing methodology. Of these, four hypotheses were conducted to test for significance differences between distributions. In addition, three hypotheses were run to provide test for interaction between two factors of signature authentication versus perceived classification. The results demonstrated that both feature distributions belonging to genuine and forged groups of samples cannot be distinguished by themselves. Instead, they were significantly different under the influence of two other inherent factors, namely perceived size and legibility. Such new findings are useful information particularly in providing bases for forensic justifications in establishing the authenticity of handwritten signature specimens.