Genre-Based Approach to the Analysis of Introductions in Doctoral Seminars of the Department of English, Unizik, Awka

This paper analyses selected research article introductions of doctoral seminars in the Department of English Language and Literature, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, to determine how these academic writings follow specific formats characteristic of such genres. Specifically the work looks at the staged cognitive organisation of the selected samples in line with the requisite schematic or generic structure postulated in Bhatia (1993) and adopted by the University of Southern California (USC). Every genre is characterized by culture-bound unique structuring and communicative purposes that give it generic coherence. Research article introduction is an academic sub-genre with specified conventions characterising genres from the academic culture/community. A total of eighteen samples of research introductions were analysed, the aim being to determine whether the cognitive move structures in the samples conform with, or depart from, the conventionalized patterns of this academic sub-genre and how the pattern used in the samples enabled or militated against the writers’ achievement of the desired communicative purposes. A critical reading of doctoral seminars in the Department shows lack of knowledge of the unique formatting of introductions, making this work to be anchored on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) with particular emphasis on English for Academic Purposes (EAP). The baseline of the findings is to discover the present proficiency of these group of learners, enlighten budding academics on the move structure of article introductions in order to achieve generic coherence as well as target proficiency in that sub-genre of academic writing

Critical Discourse Analysis of Interpersonal Meaning and Power Relations in Selected Inaugural Political Speeches in Nigeria

The paper discusses interpersonal meaning in two inaugural political speeches of Nigerian past leaders – President Olusegun Obasanjo’s “The New Dawn” (1999) and Alhaji Shehu Shagari (1979). The focus is on aspects of the Mood structure of the clause that emphasize meaning as exchange of information, goods and services between interactants, namely, the Subject; and the speech functions of the clause as propositions or proposals and vocatives. A total of 178 and 161 clauses were selected from the two speeches respectively and analyzed using Halliday’s systemic functional grammar (SFG) model and insights from critical discourse analysis (CDA). Our findings showed a deliberate oscillation between the use of singular Subject (I) and Plural Subject (We); rhetoric that in turns seems to take credit for positive achievement and divest responsibility for negative representations. The vocatives were also strategically positioned to assert solidarity, to ostensibly gain rapport and help to legitimize the power and hegemonic regime of the speakers. There was also high prevalence of propositions as against proposals giving the impression of more words and less action. The paper concludes that Nigerian politicians should be more committed to the proposals that offer goods and services to their subjects rather than making propositions that serve purely informative functions.Keywords: interpersonal meaning, critical discourse analysis, political discourse, power relations, systemic functional linguistics, inaugural political speechesUJAH: Unizik Journal of Arts and Humanities vol 14 (2) 201

Politeness Strategies and Address Terms in Igbo and Igala Kinship Cultures

The work aims at investigating politeness strategies in Igbo and Igala cultures with a view to finding out how these two cultures handle the various strategies, honorifics and address terms in kinship relationships. The theoretical bases of the work are Brown and Levinson’s face-saving view of politeness which draws heavily from Goffman’s concept of face and interaction order. Our findings show that the two cultures under review are conscious of affronts to positive and negative face, favours indirectness and off-record strategies more than bald-on-record strategies. The two cultures also employ culture-specific honorifics and address terms especially in relating with parents, spouses, elder relations, siblings and peers. It is evident from the findings that contrary to what the present day so –called “civilization” may de-culturize people into especially in the use of first names, these two cultures still uphold the inbuilt cultural respect in observing politeness strategies, honorifics and address terms

Verbal hygiene and ethnic politics in Nigeria: a study of selected newspaper print and online publications

The work investigates verbal hygiene as fundamental towards achieving unity, conflict resolution and sustainable development in a linguistically, ethnically, culturally and politically diversified Nigerian society. It tries to establish a connection between verbal hygiene and persistent implosion of ethnic conflicts in Nigeria and the debilitating consequences of such on virtually all strata of national development. Data were collected using purposive sampling technique from select Nigerian newspapers and other textual sources like television and social media broadcast that showcase the speeches of opinion leaders from different ethnic groups in Nigeria. The collected data were textually analyzed through the lens of Politeness Theory of Brown and Levinson. It was found that a strong relationship exists between poor verbal hygiene, hate speech, electoral violence and ethnicity in Nigeria. This work also found out that the speeches of most opinion leaders analysed in this work are impolite and verbally unhygienic and as such impede the positive face of people from opposing ethnic groups, this constitutes serious threat to inter-ethnic relation and cohesion. The researchers recommend that every user of the English language in Nigeria must strive to use language consciously to achieve mutual understanding and peaceful co-existence

Extracts of Moringa oleifera Lam. showing inhibitory activity against early steps in the infectivity of HIV-1 lentiviral particles in a viral vector-based screening

Moringa oleifera Lam. (Moringaceae) is one of the many medicinal plants employed by herbalist to treat or manage people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in African Traditional Medicine (ATM) and there are many claims to the fact that it improves quality of life and reverses the course of the HIV/AIDS disease progression. This practice and the claims of efficacy spurred the present study in which the inhibitory activities of three different extracts of M. oleifera on lentiviral vector infectivity were studied on HeLA cells by measuring the expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgene in the vector using flow cytometry. An infectious VSV-G-pseudotyped, human immunodeficiency virus type 1-based, selfinactivating lentiviral vector particles were generated by transient co-transfection of the vector plasmid (pHIV-1 CSCG) with packaging plasmids encoding tat, rev, gag-pol (pCMVΔR8.2), a VSV-G expression plasmid (pHIT-G), a secretory alkaline phosphate expression plasmid (pSEAP) which are all necessary for viral infectivity. The extracts studied were obtained by solvent extraction of the leaf powder of M. oleifera with ethyl ether (EM), methanol (MM) and water (AM). All the extracts (EM, MM, and AM) were active against the HIV-1 lentiviral vector and inhibited the early events of the viral replication cycle on HeLa cells in a concentration-dependent manner with IC50 of 7.59 μg EM/ml, 7.72 μg MM/ml and 7.17 μg AM/ml, respectively. Cytotoxicity of the extracts evaluated in parallel on HeLA cells by the MTT assay method showed TC50 values of 32.33 μg EM/ml, 38.88 μg MM/ml and 41.58 μg AM/ml with selectivity indices (SI) of 4.26, 5.04 and 5.8, respectively. In this study, M. oleifera leaf extracts showed potent and selective inhibition of early steps in HIV-1 infectivity and could serve as source of antiretroviral lead molecules. The outcome of this investigation could partly explain the benefits and improvement in quality of life claimed by PLWHA in the use of this medicinal plant as supplement.Keywords: Antiviral activity, antiviral screening, lentiviral vector particles, Moringa oleifera, HIV-1, viral vectorbased assay.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(30), pp. 4866-487

Antimicrobial Activity, Proximate And Amino Acids Analysis Of Tetrapleura Tetraptera

The fruits of an African spice and medicinal plant, Tetrapleura tetraptera, was analysed for its antimicrobial property, proximate composition and amino acid composition using standard procedures. The sensitivity screen ing revealed that the fruits of Tetrapleura tetmptera exhibited antimicrobial activity against Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Shigella spp and Staphylococcus aureus isolates. The best activity was observed on Escherichia coli. at a concentration of 250mg/ml having a zone of inhibition of 21mrn and the least activity was observed on Shigella spp. with a zone of inhibition of 15mrn at the same concentration. On the other hand, at a lower concentration of 31.25mg/ml, Salmonella spp was more suscep tible with a zone of inhibition of 12mm while the least activity was observed on Shigella spp at a concentration of 31.25mg/ml producing a zone of inhibition of 5mm. these reveals that Shigella spp is more resistant to the extract compared with the other isolates. Upon proximate analysis, Tetrapleura tetraptera had 5% moisture, 14% ash, 11% crude protein, 8% fats and 62% crude fibre. Also, amino acid analysis of the plant revealed that the plant contains about 17 amino acids whose concentrations were expressed in g/100g protein. Among this amino acids, there were 9 essential amino acids which includes Cystine(2.45), Isoleucine(6.21), Leucine (5.57), Lysine (5.97), Methionine (0.83), Phenylalanine(4.05),Threonine(4.75), Valine (5.50) and Tyrosine (3.65) while the remaining 8 were Non-Essential Amino Acids which includes Alanine(6.15), Arginine (6.39), Aspartic acid(11.41), Glutamic acid (13.10), Glycine (6.15), Histidi.ne(3.47), Proline (3.15) and Serine (5.86). This study therefore indicates that Tetmpleura tetmptera fruits could be useful in the treatment of diseases caused by the tes t organisms. Furthermore, the p lant could effectively serve as dietary condiment, particularly at this time when the economies of most nations are on the decline

TOTAL LYMPHOCYTE COUNT AS A PROGNOSTIC MARKER FOR CD4 COUNT IN RESOURCE LIMITED SETTINGS

Understanding the Total lymphocyte count (TLC) and CD4 relationship could aid design predictive instruments for making clinical decisions during antiretroviral therapy. The aim of this study was to determine the predictive ability of TLC for CD4 count less than or equal to 350cells/mm3.A cross sectional study involving 432 HIV-I infected persons randomly recruited from the HIV Clinics of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH) Nnewi, NAUTH Oba and St Charles Borromeo Hospital Onitsha was conducted. Ethical approval was obtained and blood samples were collected. The following were determined; HIV- screening and confirmation using serial testing algorithm with ELISA rapid test kits, CD4 count using Cyflow partec machine and Haematological profile using Sysmex KX21N. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS version 17.Out of the 432 HIV patients involved in this study, females dominated with a population of 274(63.4%) against the males numbering 158(36.6%). The relationship between the TLC cut offs and CD4 count ≤350 cells/mm3 were all statistically significant (P<0.05) except for a TLC value of 2600cells per mm3. At a value of 1200 cells/mm3, TLC had a sensitivity of 25% and specificity of 96% while at 2400 cells/mm3, TLC had a sensitivity of 76% and specificity of 39% for CD4 count of ≤350cells/mm3.TLC was found to have the most significant relationship with CD4 count of all parameters tested using regression analysis. Finally, TLC could serve as a surrogate for CD4 count for monitoring treatment in resource poor areas where facilities for CD4 count may not be available

In Vitro Anti-Listerial Activities of Crude n-Hexane and Aqueous Extracts of Garcinia kola (heckel) Seeds

We assessed the anti-Listerial activities of crude n-hexane and aqueous extracts of Garcinia kola seeds against a panel of 42 Listeria isolates previously isolated from wastewater effluents in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa and belonging to Listeria monocytogenes, Listeria grayi and Listeria ivanovii species. The n-hexane fraction was active against 45% of the test bacteria with zones of inhibition ranging between 8–17 mm, while the aqueous fraction was active against 29% with zones of inhibition ranging between 8–11 mm. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) were within the ranges of 0.079–0.625 mg/mL for the n-hexane extract and 10 to >10 mg/mL for the aqueous extract. The rate of kill experiment carried out for the n-hexane extract only, revealed complete elimination of the initial bacterial population for L. grayi (LAL 15) at 3× and 4× MIC after 90 and 60 min; L. monocytogenes (LAL 8) at 3× and 4× MIC after 60 and 15 min; L. ivanovii (LEL 18) at 3× and 4× MIC after 120 and 15 min; L. ivanovii (LEL 30) at 2, 3 and 4× MIC values after 105, 90 and 15 min exposure time respectively. The rate of kill activities were time- and concentration-dependant and the extract proved to be bactericidal as it achieved a more than 3log10 decrease in viable cell counts after 2 h exposure time for all of the four test organisms at 3× and 4× MIC values. The results therefore show the potential presence of anti-Listerial compounds in Garcinia kola seeds that can be exploited in effective anti-Listerial chemotherapy

Neologisms and nonce expressions of ethnic politics in Nigeria’s “change” regime

The paper discusses the influx of ethnically skewed neologisms and nonce expressions in the Nigerian print and online media especially in the present political “Change” dispensation. Language has, as one of its primary characteristics, productivity of new lexemes especially in the content words such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, which it does through the many word formation processes among which are affixation, coinages, acronyms and compounding, reduplication, conversion, clipping, blending, and others. Using the first four processes of word formation, the paper analyses some new lexical entries into political vocabulary especially in the language use of apex ethnic political leadership in Nigeria as found in purposively sampled print and online media reports and interrogates the underlying power struggles and ideological contestations in these new lexical derivations and formations through critical discourse analysis (CDA). Findings show that these neologisms foreground ethnic identity construction along lines of division and exclusionism with the potential threat to peaceful national dialogue in Nigeria. It is also obvious from the analysis that these new lexical formations are attempts at contesting and subverting the nepotism tendencies allegedly more pronounced among the present leaders. The paper concludes that instead of fanning these divisive propagandist neologisms, political actors and Nigerians as a whole should address fundamental issues of equality, equity, justice and fair play in governance in order to achieve lasting peace in a united de-ethnicized Nigeria as a way of stemming the tide of the proliferation of negative ethnic lexical production