ABSTRACT: Given the support of the global community of sustainable development, it is perhaps logical to infer that universities will be strong participants in the push to improve the sustainability of society in general, and among the leaders in efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2015-2030. To ascertain if this inference is valid, it can be instructive to examine and assess universities for their contributions to the SDGs. This has in fact already begun, with the launch of a new global university ranking of universities, aimed at measuring their contributions to the SDGs. Here we examine how universities contribute to sustainable development, and whether such rankings can motivate and drive initiatives that support sustainable development.

ABSTRACT: After crude oil, natural gas has become one of the most important energy sources in the world. For a long time, Tanzania has been exploring for natural gas. The first gas discovering was in 1974 in Songo Songo island southern part of Tanzania and the production started in 2004. It is always believed that gas consumption leads to the growth and development in the economics of that area. The uses of gas in homes, industries increase the living standard of the people. This study concentrates on finding the relationship between natural gas consumption and economic growth in Tanzania by using autoregressive distributed lag model, with the data from TPDC, and World Bank from 1995 to 2018. Economic growth is mainly determined by GDP, FDI, increase of population in the urban and inflation rate. The result of this study indicates that there is no long-run relationship between gas consumption and economic growth. On top of that, causality is only found in Gas consumption to FDI.

ABSTRACT: The study assessed the in-service learning paths that could maximize teachers’ attitude towards and efficacy in implementing inclusive education among primary education teachers in Ile-Ife Metropolis, Southwestern Nigeria. The three in-service learning paths considered were postgraduate degree, school-based training and experience with inclusive classroom. The study adopted the ex-post facto research design. The sample comprised 200 primary education teachers who were selected using simple random sampling technique. Results obtained revealed that none of each of the three learning paths significantly influences either the attitude of the teacher towards or their efficacy in implementing inclusive education practices. It was also revealed that the combinations of postgraduate degree, experience with inclusive classroom and school-based training on inclusive classroom ranked first in maximizing both efficacy and attitude of the teachers while experience with inclusive classroom combined with school-based training on inclusive education ranked second in maximizing both attitude and efficacy. The combination which ranked least (4th) for efficacy was postgraduate degree with experience with inclusive education while the combination which ranked least for attitude was postgraduate degree with school-based training on inclusive education. The implications of these findings is that stakeholders in the development of human capital in the basic education sector in developing countries should continue to seek and use appropriate mix of continuing professional development paths that maximizes resources and the expected outcomes in teachers while minimizing costs. One of the limitations of the research is its scope which utilized teachers in a town in one of the states in Southwestern Nigeria. Future studies may consider the use of larger samples from various geopolitical zones and the use of robust statistical tools such as structural equation modelling to determine the interplay of personal, work-related variables and selected continuing professional development strategies on teachers’ outcomes in implementing inclusive education practices.

ABSTRACT: Global challenges are complex, inter-disciplinary and span political boundaries. This warrants an integrative, multi-faceted approach involving the social, economic, ecological and technological disciplines. The integrative approach also needs to identify and empower local stakeholders such as indigenous communities. In this review, we provide a balanced view of opportunities and challenges which characterize the potential and insufficiencies of the current knowledge and institutional frameworks within the context of including indigenous/local communities in modern scientific research, especially in mitigating global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss.

ABSTRACT: The studied work presents the kinetics of the esterification of Free Fatty Acids (FFA) in jatropha oil with methanol (Alc) using glycerol based solid acid catalyst (SAC) at varying catalyst mass concentrations from 2.5 to 4.0 %, temperature 50-65 °C that is upto refluxing temperature and atmospheric pressure and Alc-FFA mole ratios ranging from 7.2:1 to 28.8:1 with respect to the FFA present in the oil matrix. The optimized esterification parameters were observed as 3.5% mass concentration of glycerol based SAC with 21.6:1, Alc-FFA mole ratio at temperature of 65 °C for a time period of 4 h which provided a conversion of about 97.03%. Based on the experimental results a second order kinetic model is proposed. The temperature influence on the rate of the reaction, Arrhenius constants and activation energies were evaluated. The reaction heat and energy of activation for the reaction were found to be 10.315 kcal/mol and 11.38 kcal/mol respectively.

ABSTRACT: This study reports the production of biogas using poultry manure and banana peels as a co-substrate, the experiments were carried out in a 20 litre biodigester and incubated for 50 days at mesophilic temperature of 34^oC and pH of 6.8. The results show that the production of biogas began on the 10^th day with a yield of 1.90 ml and increased continuously to the 20^th day with an optimal yield of 17.30ml. Then, the yield decreased for the remaining period but did not cease till the 50^th day. Kinetic models were used to compare biogas production at the ascending limb and the exponential and first order kinetic model had a better correlation and fit.

ABSTRACT: Number of experiments have been performed on various performance and emission characteristics, effect of biodiesel blends on lubricity and input and output energy distribution in diesel engine fuelled with biodiesel blends. It is also reviewed that energy audit is used in buildings, plants, process and equipments and energy audit method was developed for fishing vessels based on similar systems for land based industries. In land based businesses, industries and households, energy audits are presently used to investigate the use of energy and to identify opportunities for the efficiency improvement and effectiveness in the energy use. Energy audits have been used in various sectors, industries and utilities. This paper is a review paper of energy audit and it is found that there is a vast scope for implementation of standardized energy audit in diese engines fuelled with biodiesel blends. Its objective is to find out a standard energy audit method for diesel engine fuelled with biodiesel blends which evaluate the feasibility of biodiesel blend as fuel and also harmonise the research of biodiesel as fuel.