Knowledgebase & Articles

Traditional and Alternative Medicine or Traditional African Medicine (TAM) is an indigenous form of healing modality that is commonly practiced all over Africa [1]. This therapeutic system has no connection with conventional medicine and is generally used as an alternative to mainstream medicine. Various approaches that are adopted in TAM to heal a patient includes botanical medicine; minerals, exercises, manual techniques, spiritual therapy, etc. TAM practitioners use all these approaches either singularly or in combination for the treatment of patients. A substantial focus is given to the early diagnosis of illness, its prevention, and overall maintenance of well-being. Published research studies have indicated that TAM is very popular in Nigeria [2]. Many patients suffering from various chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cancer, epilepsy, asthma, sickle cell disease, etc., are found to be dependent on TAM.     Unlike conventional medicine, TAM is not taught in medical school and the accumulated knowledge and experience of the practitioners is passed from one generation to another by word-of-mouth. Because of this TAM is not well standardized like conventional medicine and is poorly regulated. As a result, the acceptance is not good among the scientific community. To many, it is simple quackery but to others living in marginalized conditions, TAM is a lifeline. Conventional medicine is good but it is out of reach for many living in economically challenging conditions. Despite TAM may not be the first choice but there is very less option available to people living in the developing world where the medical facilities are not adequate. Moreover, many are happy with TAM as it suits their cultural milieu and some still fear visiting a clinic.   Looking at the fact that an unprecedented number of people in Nigeria are trying TAM, the Federal government through the Ministry of Health has taken many steps to promote the practice of traditional medicine in the country [3]. National Policy on Traditional Medicine, Laws and Regulations was developed in 2004. In 2020, the Ministry of Health approved the establishment of a Council for Traditional, Alternative, and Complementary Medicine Practice in Nigeria. However, many issues have to be solved to promote TAM. There is no distinct legal framework created by the Federal government to monitor or control the practice of traditional medicine in Nigeria. Quality control of herbal medicine is very important as batch-to-batch variation is not very uncommon. Sometimes herbal medicine can also contain harmful substances because Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) were not followed. To promote TAM, it has to be properly researched and institutionalized. So far no university in Nigeria offers full-fledged courses on TAM or ‘Herbal Medicine.’  National University Commission still doesn’t have any courses on TAM enlisted in their course curriculum. To encourage the spread and reliability of TAM proper research and clinical studies must be done, only then the confidence of the public will be stronger. Like it had happened with Ayurveda in India and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in China. Global acceptance and popularity of both these alternative healing practices have skyrocketed in recent years. The same can happen with TAM provided it is properly taught, researched, and documented.         References: Chitindingu E, George G, Gow J. A review of the integration of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine into the curriculum of South African medical schools. BMC Med Educ 2014; 28; 14:40. Li S, Odedina S, Agwai I, Ojengbede O, Huo D, Olopade OI. Traditional medicine usage among adult women in Ibadan, Nigeria: a cross-sectional study. BMC Complement Med Ther 2020; 20(1): 93. Awodele O, Amagon KI, Wannang NW, Aguiyi JC. Traditional medicine policy and regulation in Nigeria: an index of herbal medicine safety. Curr Drug Safety 2014, 9(1): 16-22.   Dr. Sanjoy Kumar Pal is a Professor of Biology in Skyline University Nigeria. He has a PhD. in Animal Genetics from Indian Veterinary Research Institute, India. You can join the conversation on Facebook @SkylineUniversityNG and on Twitter @SkylineUNigeria

If you are looking to improve your language proficiency, it is important to do your best to remove any accents that might exist in your native language. Accents are difficult for listeners to understand and can significantly detract from the quality of your conversation, whether you are speaking with business colleagues or just practicing with a friend. When it comes to language, an accent is a native speaker’s idiosyncratic pronunciation of a certain language. It is usually defined as either a socially or geographically determined variation in speech, although linguists are increasingly aware that accents may be determined by other, non-social factors such as level of education or proficiency with a language (Miley and Farmer, 2017). When talking about someone’s accent, it is important to remember that no two people speak alike; even people who grew up next door to each other will end up with different accents! The first step to good pronunciation is knowing how each sound is supposed to sound in a word. The idea behind mastering individual sounds is that once you know how these sounds are supposed to sound, you will be able to recognize them in spoken English. With enough practice, you will have learned what proper pronunciation feels like. Getting rid of your foreign intonation patterns is very important. When an American comes to Nigeria and does not change their accent or habits when speaking, it can cause confusion on behalf of listeners. It makes them unsure if they understood what was said correctly. Also, some words simply sound better with different accents than others but it does make a difference in how your message is interpreted. Moreover, most American English speech is spoken in a fairly neutral tone, intonation patterns in American English do have regional differences (Kim and Butler 2017). The differences may be hard to pick up for those with different accents, but if one is trying to learn how to speak better, here are a few things that you need to keep in mind. Any language is difficult to pronounce in its entirety. Luckily, there are several factors that contribute to difficulty when pronouncing a foreign language. Here are some tips that can help with improving pronunciation at all levels. Learn common spelling patterns of your target language. You should be able to recite words as you read them, understanding how each letter sounds in relation to others. This will make it easier for you to recognize words on paper or hear them spoken by another person. It will also make it easier for native speakers to understand what you are saying if they do not know what word you are trying to say. Pay attention while listening to native speakers speak their language. If possible, try recording conversations so that you can listen back later without distraction from other people or noises around you. Once you have time to reflect on what was said, write down any unfamiliar words or phrases and look up their meanings. Try practicing these new phrases until they become more familiar. Practice speaking out loud whenever possible. One may feel silly doing it in front of a mirror or talking to yourself, but practice makes perfect! The more an individual practices speaking out loud, whether it is reciting vocabulary lists aloud or simply having conversations with yourself, the better you will get at recognizing where mistakes occur and correcting them quickly. References Miley, Suzi Keller, and Aarek Farmer. “English Language Proficiency and Content Assessment Performance: A Comparison of English Learners and Native English Speakers Achievement.” English Language Teaching, vol. 10, no. 9, 2017, doi:10.5539/elt.v10n9p198. Wolf Mikyung Kim, and Yuko Goto Butler. English Language Proficiency Assessments for Young Learners. Routledge, 2017.   Mr. Adelokun Adetunji Oluwapelumi is a Lecturer II at the School of Art, Management and Social Science, Skyline University Nigeria. He has a Master of Arts Degree in English Literature from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria You can join the conversation on Facebook @SkylineUniversityNG and on Twitter @SkylineUNigeria

Globalization and the advancements in ICT after the Second World War (WW II)  has  knitted and interconnected countries and rendered territorial boundaries void, thereby expanding the constitutive role of the United Nations (UN). Today, terrorism, climate change, cybercrime, drug trafficking, illegal migration, and trafficking in persons, among others, are global issues that a single state cannot solve, but must be resolved through the collective efforts of states. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic first broke out in Wuhan, China, but as of April 13, 2022, 14:13 GMT, Worldometer reported that 501,406,088 people were affected, with 6,210,759 deaths across the globe. Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye described the interconnection of the states as a complex dependency. In a world of complex interdependence, the policies, actions, and inactions of one state might have a profound effect on another or other states in the world. With the increased interdependence of states, many concepts and events in the world are experiencing a shift in meaning. For instance, there is a shift in understanding from absolute to relative sovereignty. Sovereignty refers to the right and authority of a state to exercise total control over its own affairs without any form of external interference. What states held tenaciously was absolute sovereignty, barring any form of external intervention of any sort. But the concept is shifting in meaning from absolutism to relativism. Simonovic (2002) argues that the traditional absolute sovereignty principle of noninterference in the “internal affairs of a state” is being challenged by the international community’s belief in its “responsibility to protect” the world’s citizens from persecution, large-scale human rights abuses, and other suffering. Today, no state can say that it has complete control over its own affairs without being influenced by outside forces in some way. There is also a shift in the conception of nationalism to internationalism. Nationalism is understood to be one’s love for his nation. But the notion has given way to internationalism. People now see themselves not only as citizens of a particular country, but as global citizens. Humanity is seen as general regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, and country of residence. In a complex, interdependent world, an injury to one country or society is regarded as an injury to all peoples of the world. The global outrage over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows how humanity is cared for, regardless of territorial boundary. Foreign policies used to be rather basic, largely limited to imports and exports. Agriculture, fiscal aid, terrorism, the environment, health, and education are all areas where today’s foreign policies have grown dramatically. Most institutions around the world aspire to engage in practices that are globally accepted and commonly referred to as “global best practices.” Interdependence has made educational institutions and their services reflect not only domestic need but also global exigency. Skyline University Nigeria was established in 2018 and is leaving to the reality of the 21st century where states are complexly interdependent, thereby preparing students to not just be productive citizens of their respective countries, but responsible global citizens. This stems from the fact that any meaningful education that a college, university, or any educational institution provides must be to prepare students to favorably compete with their peers across the globe and also prepare them for not just their national challenges, but global challenges. As the African proverb says, “When the rhythm of the music changes, the dance steps must change also.” Globalization and ICT have reduced the world to a global village, states are complexly interdepended, everyone must brace up to the new reality.   References Simonovic, I (2002). Relative sovereignty of the twenty first century. Hastings International and Comparative Law Review, 25(5). https://repository.uchastings.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1569&context=hastings_int   ernational_comparative_law_review Keohane, R. O. & Nye, J. S. (1977). Power and Interdependence: World politics in transition. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. Keohane, R. O. & Nye, J. S. (1987). Power and Interdependence Revisited. International   Organization, 41, 725-753.   Nyam Elisha YAKUBU is a lecturer II in the Department of International Relations of the School of Arts, Management and Social Science in Skyline University Nigeria. He holds an M.Sc. in International Relations and Strategic Studies, from the University of Jos. You can join the conversation on Facebook @SkylineUniversityNG and on Twitter @SkylineUNigeria

The rapid development in population density in metropolitan cities has necessitates a reasonable provision of services and infrastructures to meet the needs of the residents. There is no doubt that the rapid urbanization has not only modernized many people lives and also improved their standard of living but also brought about major issues such as pollution, increased energy consumption, traffic congestion, natural disasters among others. Torres-Ruiz & Lytras [1] defined urban computing as the process of acquiring, integrating, and analyzing big and heterogeneous data generated by a variety of sources in urban spaces, such as sensors, devices, vehicles, buildings, and humans. Urban computing brings together inconspicuous and ubiquitous sensing technologies, powerful data management and analytics models, and unique visualization approaches to provide win-win-win solutions that improve the urban environment, human life quality, and city operations systems. Urban computing also aids in the understanding of urban phenomena and even the forecasting of futures cities. Urban computing is an interdisciplinary field that combines computing science with traditional fields such as transportation, civil engineering, business, ecology, and sociology. The application of urban computing in the management of transportation is one of the most significant application in urban computing. The amount of information generated today in the transport sector is massive which is where BigData, an aspect of urban computing comes into play. The data collected is analyzed and used to improve the different aspects in the transport sector which is the goal of having a smooth smart transport services with high efficiency, increased level of travel experience and cost effectiveness [2] [3]. Moreover, air pollution is one of the problems brought about by urbanization of our cities and there have been different proposals by governments on addressing the issue like building air quality stations but the problem still lingers because of factors like land uses, traffic volume and meteorology. The application of urban computing in addressing it is now getting attention with several studies being conducted in this area. An example of such studies is carried out by Zheng  et. al [4], where the authors introduced a cloud-based knowledge discovery system that infers real-time and fine-grained air quality information across a city based on historical and real-time air quality data given by existing monitor stations and a number of data sources observed around the city such as point of interest (POI), human mobility, traffic flow, meteorology, road network structures. Other areas where urban computing have been applied is the housing and real estate sector as discussed in several studies [5], [6], health sector also as discussed in [7], [8], environment sector especially in disaster management as discussed in several studies [9], [10], [11] among others. Recent advancements in wireless communications, smart gadgets, and social computing applications have enable new urban sensing and management opportunities. In summary, urban computing is an interdisciplinary discipline that investigates how real-time technology may help us better understand our cities while also imagining ways in which these technologies can improve them. REFERENCES Torres-Ruiz, Miguel & Lytras, Miltiadis. (2016). Urban Computing and Smart Cities Applications for the Knowledge Society. International Journal of Knowledge Society Research. 7. 113-119. 10.4018/IJKSR.2016010108. Nagy, Albert & József, Tick. (2016). Improving transport management with big data analytics. 199-204. 10.1109/SISY.2016.7601497. Munizaga, Marcela. (2019). Big data and transport. 10.4337/9781788970204.00032. Zheng, Y., Liu, F., & Hsieh, H.-P. (2013). U-Air: When urban air quality inference meets big data. Proceedings of the 19th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (pp. 1436–1444). ACM. doi:10.1145/2487575.2488188 Mohammed, Jibrin & Bello, M. & Saidu, Umar & Mohammed, Maikudi. (2018). A MODEL FOR INTEGRATED SMART REAL ESTATE. Barkham, Richard & Bokhari, Sheharyar & Saiz, Albert. (2022). Urban Big Data: City Management and Real Estate Markets. 10.1007/978-3-030-84459-2_10. Cook, Diane & Duncan, Glen & Sprint, Gina & Fritz, Roschelle. (2018). Using Smart City Technology to Make Healthcare Smarter. Proceedings of the IEEE. PP. 1-15. 10.1109/JPROC.2017.2787688. Cabo, Javier & Uceda, Jose & Muiños, Verónica & Lopez, Javier & De Castro Lozano, Carlos. (2018). Ubiquitous Computing and Its Applications in the Disease Management in a Ubiquitous City. Journal of Computer and Communications. 06. 19-42. 10.4236/jcc.2018.63002. Chaudhuri, Neha & Bose, Indranil. (2019). Application of Image Analytics for Disaster Response in Smart Cities. 10.24251/HICSS.2019.367. Hartama, Dedy & Zarlis, M & Sembiring, Rahmat Widia. (2017). Smart City: Utilization of IT resources to encounter natural disaster. Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 890. 012076. 10.1088/1742-6596/890/1/012076. You, Jianyi & Muhammad, Auwal & He, Xin & Xie, Tianqi & Wang, Zhiyuan & Fan, Xiaoliang & Yu, Zhiyong & Chen, Longbiao & Wang, Cheng. (2022). PANDA: predicting road risks after natural disasters leveraging heterogeneous urban data. CCF Transactions on Pervasive Computing and Interaction. 10.1007/s42486-022-00095-5.   Mr Muhammad Auwal Sagir is a lecturer at the Department of Computer Science, School of Sciences and Information Technology at Skyline University Nigeria. He obtained his MSc. Cloud Computing from University of Essex (UK). You can join the conversation on Facebook @SkylineUniversityNG and on Twitter @SkylineUNigeria

Do you mind a stranger monitoring your digital life, I mean tracking your calls, mining videos, pictures, text messages, and all the sites explored on your smartphone? Have you ever thought of a mobile application that pries what you do in your private space? It could be a spy when you are not aware, but what if your permission is sought and granted, could it still be an offense? Perhaps yes when you don’t know the depth of personal information gathered about you before granting access. Advancement in the internet and internet of things technologies in a couple of decades has transformed information creation, dissemination, and consumption into a most flexible eased, and interesting experience. The unprecedented surge of the internet and the supportive internet-of-things resulted in agglutination and obsession with the technologies, particularly among teenagers and young adults who spent an hour navigating across a plethora of social media and none social media platforms to gratify their needs. It is quite a hard thing for the netizens to pass a day without exploring a social networking platform except perhaps they are eluded of connectivity. In some societies, excessive use of internet technologies poses the menace of social media addiction and fling such users into a pool of psychological and physical effects (Hughes, 2015). Social media as a key player in modern communication succeeded in shrinking the globe into a village that can be explored by mere “clicking” on a palm-size device. The sites are so pervasive that they penetrate virtually every home, organization, institution, and sector knitting social, business, educational, and religious domains. The sudden growth of social media comes with both benefits and losses as it becomes a prime target of cybercriminals, corporate bodies, and the platforms’ developers who work tirelessly strategizing ways of tapping users’ personal information for various criminal, commercial, and surveillance activities. Winseck, as summarized in Lyon, (2003), laments that valuable private information is generated in form of the user profile, customer details, or enrolment data while some of the systems are quite aware of the weakness of their data protection mechanisms. This situation is obtainable on virtually all social platforms. Installation and signing up for certain mobile applications require “agreeing to the term and condition” part of which you give the application access to your media, Text, and sound on your device. Media in this context means all videos, pictures, and audio information; Text comprised text messages, documents in text form, and symbols; and sound encompasses calls, recorded voices, downloaded voices, and all auditory information including those on other platforms. The ever-growing availability of big data; its spreading and the great impact it has on the human privacy risks prompted many companies to consider the integration of privacy requirements into their business model (CHI 2018, April 21–26, 2018, Montréal, QC, Canada), observes that, if you do not pay for a product, you are then the product (CHI 2018, April 21–26, 2018, Montréal, QC, Canada). Moreover, most social networking site subscribers use their mobile phones to access the platforms. According to 2022 research statistics, 98.5% access Facebook on their smartphones. Most cybernauts are destitute of the implication of exploring the sites on a smartphone, perhaps due to inadequate digital literacy, a behavior that often lands innocent cyber citizens into a barrage of unjustifiable abuse and violation of privacy. The greatest mistake users often make is accepting cookies and agreeing to the terms and conditions of the platforms without reading the content. Most social networking site users lack the understanding of the privacy policies and settings, hence, allowing default settings that are prone to multifaceted violations from the applications designers, cybercriminals, and desperate economic tycoons. Unfortunately, the terms and conditions composed by such platforms are intentionally designed with semantic noise, lousy construction, and vague to smear reading appetite. Moreover, users should frequently be checking and customizing privacy and security settings to avoid violations. Similarly, European Union (EU), the USA, and Canada have laws that govern social networking sites in their countries, to avoid any stinking experiences. Therefore, all countries need to sensitize social users of these platforms in their country so that they explore the depth of internet safety. Reference  Ackerman, S., & Schutte, K. (2015). Social Media as a Vector for Cyber Crime. www.clarkschaefer.com Aldhafferi, N., Watson, C., & Sajeev,  a S. M. (2013). Personal Information Privacy Settings of Online Social Networks and their Suitability for Mobile Internet Devices. International Journal of Security, Privacy and Trust Management, 2(2), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.5121/ijsptm.2013.2201 Calbalhin, J. P. (2019). Facebook User ’ s Data Security and Awareness : A Literature Review. Journal of Academic Research, 3(2), 0–13. Chewae, M., Hayikader, S., Hasan, M. H., & Ibrahim, J. (2015). How Much Privacy We Still Have on Social Network ? 5(1), 1–5. Das, B., & Sahoo, J. S. (2011). Social Networking Sites – A Critical Analysis of Its Impact on Personal and Social Life. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(14), 222–228. http://www.ijbssnet.com/journals/Vol._2_No._14;_July_2011/25.pdf Dey, K., & Mondal, P. (2019). Privacy awareness among the academic social network users. Library Philosophy and Practice, 2019(September). Finn, R. L., Wright, D., & Friedewald, M. (2013). Seven types of privacy. European Data Protection: Coming of Age, 3–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5170-5_1 Fourth Amendment Search and Seizure, Authenticated U.S. Government Information 1197 (1992). http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/rightofprivacy.html Holvast, J. (2007). History of privacy. The History of Information Security, 737–769. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-044451608-4/50028-6 How Apps on Android Share Data with Facebook. (2018). December. Hughes, R. L. D. (2015). Two concepts of privacy. Computer Law & Security Review, 31(4), 527–537. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2015.05.010 Jin, G. Z. (2018). Artificial Intelligence and Consumer Privacy (No. 24253; NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES).   Mr. Bashiru Usman is working as a Lecturer in Skyline University Nigeria in the Department of Mass Communications. He has obtained a Masters’ Degree in Communication and Media Studies, Cyprus International University, Cyprus You can join the conversation on Facebook @SkylineUniversityNG and on Twitter @SkylineUNigeria

It has long been discovered that long sitting hours can lead to a number of health complications and postural problems like disc damage, strained neck, swayed back etc. Many corporate employees who work in a sitting position for long hours complained of these postural problems, workplace injuries that could be avoided.

Introduction The international system is influenced by two dominant approaches; Neo-Realism and Liberalism. Neo realist views the international system as a structure influenced by anarchy due to lack of central authority. Therefore, for states to survive, they must acquire power and security. While the latter argues that the international system can be cooperative and peaceful through international institutions; UN, IMF World Bank, etc. They put forward motion that through international trade and economic ties relationships between nations will lessen tension and prevent war. Globalization in the 21st century has paved the way for multinational cooperation (MNC) to become key players in shaping economies, especially in developing nations. Third world countries grow their economy either through official development aid (ODA) from other states and international institutions (IMF, World Bank) or through foreign direct investment (FDI) where MNC plays significant roles. Historically, MNC can be traced back to the 18th century with the establishment of the British India Company, the company was granted rights to trade between Europe and East Indies. However, the system was state-dominated then, but as MNC evolved the dependency on states lessen over time (Kapfer, 2006).  Contemporary, the dynamics of the international system has laid the foundation for cooperation’s to be efficient in coordinating global strategies for production, management practice, Profit maximization and adaptive in a different environment to take advantage of opportunities provided by the states. Hence, power gradually shifted from states to cooperation (Kapfer, 2006). The advancement and growth of MNC such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, and other telecommunication companies have begun to be at the expense of states sovereignty. Here we use the term Sovereignty in one’s ability to control its affairs both internally and externally. Accordingly, these MNC play a significant role in supporting sustainable development in developing economies by providing investment and jobs. However, due to their level of influence and their financial power bank, their ability to determine or interfere in domestic’s politics is alarming to the world leaders. Domestic politics influence international politics, and developing states tend to suffer most domestically when non-state actors begin to dabble into their affairs. This is be done through lobbying of politicians and interests groups that plays a significant role is state’s legislative process. So, where does the power lie, States or corporations? Well, the answer is not quite simple, both actors do play vital role to the progress of the other. Despite the power and influence of MNC, states power can control to an extent over MNC actions, they have the authority to allow a company do business in their territory and can provide protectionist policies to shield local firms. However, this can hinder or stagnate economic growth if done extremely. Why? Because MNC find manipulative ways to reduce their cost of production by unwilling using outdated production techniques, For example, the Chrysler used outdated and inefficient practices in Mexico. On the other states must accommodate the reality of given some sovereignty in order for their economies to develop through multinational cooperation’s   References Kapfer, S. (2006). Multinational corporations and the erosion of state sovereignty. Illinois State University. Kline, J. (2006). MNCs and Surrogate Sovereignty. The Brown Journal of World Affairs, 13(1), 123-133. Retrieved July 12, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24590648 Lawrence, Robert Z. 2005. Comment. In does foreign direct investment promote development? Washington, DC: Institute for International Economics.   Mr.  Farid Iliyasu Illo is a Lecturer II of the Department of International Relations, Skyline University Nigeria. He holds a Master’s Degree in Strategic Studies from University Utara Malaysia (UUM) You can join the conversation on Facebook @SkylineUniversityNG and on Twitter @SkylineUNigeria