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Non-farm enterprises and poverty reduction amongst households in rural Nigeria: a propensity score matching approach

The data of nationally representative household survey from rural Nigeria was used to examine the effect of non-farm enterprise activities on improvement in the welfare of households in rural Nigeria, using total annual household consumption expenditure as a measure of their welfare. Propensity score matching approach was used for the analysis, and the result shows that rural households that engage in non-farm enterprise activities are having higher consumption expenditure than those that did not diversify into such activities. This suggests that, non-farm enterprises could be a pathway for improving the wellbeing of rural households in Nigeria and in the remaining sub-Saharan African countries

Comparative Study of Critical View of Safety vs Infundibular Technique in Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to compare the critical view of safety technique with the infundibular technique in laparoscopic cholecystectomy in terms of mean operative time and bile duct injuries (BDI). METHODOLOGY: Between 2018 and 2020, 220 patients had laparoscopic cholecystectomy in the Surgical "A" unit at Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar, Pakistan. The patients were divided into two groups, with the first receiving a critical view of safety and the second receiving an infundibular procedure. Operation time and bile duct injury were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: The operative time was significantly reduced with the critical view of safety (CVS) approach, with a mean time of 35.07 minutes for CVS and 40.58 minutes for infundibular technique, with a significant P-value (0.013).  About 17 (7.7%) cases required open cholecystectomy; the conversion rate was higher in the infundibular group, with a significant P-value (<0.001). CONCLUSION: Although the "critical view of safety" requires more patience during dissections than the infundibular approach, it is proven to be faster and is considered a safe procedure in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. KEYWORDS: Critical View of Safety (CVS), Infundibular Technique (IT), Bile Duct Injury (BDI

Genre Analysis of Acknowledgement Texts by Pakistani Master Level Theses Writers

oai:ojs2.linguisticforum.com:article/1This study aims to investigate the lexical, structural and cultural elements in acknowledgement texts written by Pakistani candidates of master of philosophy degrees (18 years of education). For this purpose, a corpus of 100 acknowledgement texts has been developed and analyzed with the help of AntConc 3.4.4.0. Results reveal that Pakistani master level acknowledgement writers use gratitude markers extravagantly to thank their contributors and use high sounding adjectives exaggeratedly to increase the effect of thankfulness and glorify the acknowledged persons. Acknowledgement texts are a blend of different patterns which are the example of their own. Study concludes that Pakistani acknowledgement texts are affected by cultural, social and personal elements with the help of which Pakistani acknowledgers pay gratitude directly, emotionally and warmly using direct, emotional and rhetorical language

Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction: (Book Review)

Contemporary Linguistics was initially (First Edition 1989) composed to present an introductory textbook on linguistics to enlighten the students about different areas of linguistics (morphology, phonology, psycholinguistics, semantics, syntax, and sociolinguistics) with the aims to provide up-to-date coverage of the subject areas, and provide a clear and direct presentation of materials for the students of linguistics. In this regard, editors of the book strived to: incorporate up-to-date and comprehensive text; present the knowledge of the subject from working experts on a particular topic; adopt a modular approach to explain complicated concepts in an engaging and digesting style; and offer extensive support to instructors and students to teach and understand the book. The book was warmly welcomed by the students, and well appreciated by the experts in the field of linguistics. As a result, the editors have been charting various developments in the subject through different editions (1-6). The current edition (7th 2017) of Contemporary Linguistics comprises of 14 chapters. Chapter one previews language and its features. Chapter two discusses the sounds of speech focusing the part of articulators to produce sounds, symbols representing sounds, grouping of sounds into classes, and features of sound. Chapter three reviews the distinctiveness of sounds, and the use of transcription to describe the variation of sounds. Chapter four throws light on word structures explaining different concepts on morphology. Chapter five presents the analysis of sentence structures explaining how words: are categorized; and combined to form phrases and sentences; and how sentence structures are diagrammed. Chapter six describes different concepts of semantics e.g., derivation of meaning, contribution of speaker’s attitude and belief, context, and setting toward meaning. Chapter seven explains how different languages are classified based on morphological, phonological, and syntactic similarities. Chapter eight discusses: how and why a language and its sounds change over time; and what syntactic and morphological changes are noticed in a language. Chapters nine and 10 explain how children acquire first and second language by developing vocabulary in different stages of acquisition, and what factors influence the acquisition process. Chapter 11 answers the questions related to the: methods employed by psycholinguists to study language processing; linguistic principles involved in language production and comprehension; and psycholinguistic models applied to explain language processing. Entitled ‘Brain and Language’ chapter 12 describes the structure of human brain and its relation with language, and neurolinguistic investigations on language and brain. Chapter 13 explains the use of language in social contexts focusing on how: class, ethnicity, gender and place influence language variation; dialect variation takes place over time; language contact influences development and use of language; social interaction influences the use of language; and people deal with language. Chapter 14 explains the development of writing systems, the emergence of alphabetical systems, the development of writing systems in non-European languages, the development of modern English spelling system, and the relation between reading and writing. Each chapter of the textbook starts with a quote from world-famous literary works followed by the chapter objectives, a detailed overview of the topic, and ends in a chapter summary, key terms, recommended reading, and exercises. Quotes (at the start of every chapter) are very concise and exciting, and present a very appealing introduction of the topic. Chapter objectives comprise of short statements that present an easily understandable aim of the particular topic. A detailed overview of the topic provides a comprehensive discussion of different aspects of the specific topic. Chapter summary (titled ‘Summing Up’) presents a precise summary of the discussion on a specific topic, and makes it easy for the reader the digest the essence of the discussion. ‘Recommended Reading’ section provides references to the materials for further reading on the topic. Exercises, at the end of every chapter, are also very interesting and help to assess readers’ comprehension of the topic. The current edition is very advantageous for several reasons such as it: presents revised content on four chapters (2, 3, 4, and 5) on phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax; updates two additional chapters ‘Second Language Acquisition’, and ‘Language in Social Contexts’ with the aim to incorporate the recent scholarship in the field; provides LaunchPad Solo that offers features (interactive exercises, advanced questions, interactive IPA audio charts, additional reviews on core topics, further exploration of four chapters); provides study guide of the book; presents ‘Instructor’s Resource Manual’ as a teaching guide for the teachers of the textbook; gives detailed and advanced information on the subject; provides online exercises to support multimedia technology in the classroom; and reflects recent research on linguistics. Important boxes like ‘Language Matters’ (present general knowledge on specific topics) and ‘For the Student Linguist’ are the plus of the textbook that is rarely found in any other textbook of linguistics. To be brief, Contemporary Linguistics is a wonderful textbook that features valuable and unique things that further make it a ‘springboard to the realm of scientific analysis’, and ‘a greater appreciation for the wonder of human language, the variety and complexity of its structure, and the subtlety of its use’ (Preface, p. xiv). About Book Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction (7th Edition). Edited by William O’Grady, John Archibald, Mark Aronoff and Janie Rees-Miller. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s Macmillan Learning, 2017, pp. 674, 35.99$ (Paperback), ISBN: 978-1-319-03977-6

Investigating Shades of Modality in an Autobiography, “If I am Assassinated”: A Corpus-Based Analysis

This study investigated the attitudes and shades marked by the writer in an autobiography through the corpus expressions developed on modalities (i.e., boulmaic, deontic, epistemic, and perceptual). The study also put to the test the patterns created to examine modality across fiction genre. A corpus was created for this purpose and tagged using the Parts of Speech (POS) Tagger for analysis using AntConc 3.4.4.0. This analysis was then further interpreted using Simpson\u27s (1993) model. It was discovered that the author used many modalities, such as (un)certainty, attitude, point of view, ability, possibility, and likelihood, to form the meaning in the autobiography. These features highlighted the text\u27s persuasiveness, interest, and realism. By including these features, the autobiography was given positive and negative undertones that helped readers comprehend the author\u27s perspective. In conclusion, the content seemed more upbeat than downbeat. The deontic and boulomaic modalities that indicated estrangement and uncertainty on the writer\u27s part were used to mark the positive shade. Additionally, the use of the suggested patterns was successful in analysing the modality aspects using corpus techniques. They were suggested in the study as a paradigm for additional research. &nbsp

Policy Failure in Achieving Universal Basic Education: A Theoretical Analysis

Universal attainment of basic education is recognised as a key development goal; whereas early-age work is considered as a barrier to achieving this goal. The literature suggests that returns to education are larger than those of early-age work, and that child-labour results in long term social loss that reduces human capital. This study evaluates the argument that earlyage work can itself lead to accumulation of human capital when it takes the form of apprenticeship career path. The paper develops a model that allows a rational agent (parent) to compare the early-age work as apprenticeship career path with the formal education career and shows that the parents’ career choice for their child will depend on the lifetime earnings of both careers. The theoretical model is further extended and empirically tested to check whether benefits of education are higher for all levels of education. The simulation analysis suggests that for lower level of education up to Grade-12, the benefits of apprenticeship exceed the net benefits of education whereas, at Grade-12 and beyond, the net benefits of education in terms of earnings outstrip the apprenticeship career. The study implies that early-age work may not necessarily be inefficient when compared with low levels of schooling and that any intervention should ensure universal education for all without compromising skill development of resource poor children. This can be achieved through making skill development complementary to education. JEL Classifications: H44, H52, I26, J24 Keywords: Child-labour, Basic Education, Human Capital, Public Polic