Business Roundtable

Decoding Plateau State, Nigeria’s farmer-herder conflict reveals its deep roots in history, society, economy, and politics, intensified by ethnic and religious exploitation. This work unveils the invaluable role of local peacebuilders navigating this complex web. They offer solutions rooted in cultural nuance, build essential trust, and foster community ownership—key to preventing escalation and forging durable peace. Engaging these unsung heroes is not just insightful; it is transformative for lasting solutions.

ABSTRACT It has been suggested that being a Baptist and being an Old Testament scholar follow parallel but unconnected trajectories. This article considers why that may be, and explores the possibility of a baptistic approach to Old Testament studies. It affirms the commitment of Baptists to the authority of both testaments and notes significant Baptist Old Testament scholars. However, it also points to the challenge of giving due weight to the Old Testament. It concludes that the linked notions of ‘further light' and ‘unity in disagreement’, which encourage an openness both to new ways of understanding the text and to one another in conversation together, alongside uncovering and applying theological principles found in the Old Testament, offer a way forward that, while not distinctively baptistic, is rooted in convictions that have long been important to Baptists.

Since the recent expansion of higher education in prison (HEP) programs, correctional systems and universities have been working to optimize these programs to yield maximum impact. Collaborating with individuals with lived experience of incarceration and participation in higher education could provide valuable insights toward improving these programs. This paper reports on a community advisory board (CAB) of formerly incarcerated people, which set out to share ideas on improving higher education in prison based on their personal and shared experiences. These experiences and suggestions were grouped into themes outlined in this paper and accompanied by quotes from CAB members. Members described non-existent or negative relationships with schooling before incarceration. This lack of conversation, culture, or infrastructure for education continued into incarceration, though they recognized that school might have provided better opportunities for students and their families upon release. The board suggested that introducing a trusted, formerly incarcerated peer could help combat negative experiences with school, transition students into learning, and help them build the momentum to be self-sustaining in HEP. The novel insights generated by this CAB reflect the value of integrating lived experience in decision-making regarding HEP programs.

In this study, Azolla Microphylla Extract (AME) appears as a potent corrosion inhibitor, effectively reducing the corrosion rate of low-carbon steel (CS) in a 1.0 M HCl solution. Comprehensive investigation methods, including weight loss (WL), potentiodynamic polarization (PP), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and electrochemical frequency modulation (EFM), were employed. The inhibition efficiency (IE) was evaluated across a range of extract concentrations (50-300 ppm) and temperatures (298-313 K). There is a good agreement between the results of electrochemical and WL methods. A remarkable IE of 98.1% was achieved at 313 K with 300 ppm of AME, displaying its effectiveness. At 298 K, the IE was 81.3%. Adsorption of AME on CS followed Langmuir isotherm and at temperatures of 308 K or lower the ΔGoads magnitudes were below –20 kJ mol-1, indicative of physical adsorption. However, at 313 K, ΔGoads exceeded –20 kJ mol-1, signaling a change to chemical adsorption. AME belongs to anodic inhibitors. The activation energy for the blank solution is 98.13 kJ mol-1, which decreased to 62.98 kJ mol-1 in the presence of 300 ppm of AME. Nyquist plots showed that AME inhibiting CS dissolution in HCl without altering the dissolution reaction mechanism. Attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) inspections confirmed the adsorption of AME on CS. AME satisfies the general structural requirement of the corrosion inhibitor as it has O atoms in functional groups (O-H, C=C, and C=O) and an aromatic ring. The findings align well with other environmentally friendly inhibitors previously reported for CS corrosion.