Comparative Study of Generic Structural Elements in Research Article Abstracts of Selected Arts-Based Disciplines

Academic genre analysts have over the last few decades preoccupied themselves with the description of rhetorical organisation of different academic genres This is done with a view to providing writers most especially young entrants into academic discourse community with knowledge on academic genre literacy Extant literature reveals that generic structural elements of arts-based research article abstracts have not been much explored using generic comparative analytical approach perspective and this creates a research vacuum in the literature This study therefore fills the vacuum as it carries out a comparative study of Generic Structural Elements in Research Article Abstracts of Selected Arts-Based Disciplines This is done with a view to determining the generic structural variations across disciplines The study utilised as data three hundred abstracts 100 from each group purposively selected from 27 journals in Languages and Communication LC 13 in Literary and Creative Arts LCA and 25 in Cultural Studies and Philosophy CSP published between 2001 and 2010 The journals selected are domiciled in universities in the inner circle countries where English is spoken as mother tongue The generic structural elements of these abstracts are comparatively analysed using insights from the Generic Structural Potential analytical tool of SF

An Exploration of the Generic Structures of Problem Statements in Research Article Abstracts

Studies on research article abstracts have examined the abstracts in their entirety. Besides, while some of these works concentrate on conference abstracts, most of them analyse a combination of research abstracts from a variety of disciplines outside arts-based disciplines. Problem statement segments of the abstracts are yet to be exclusively studied. Motivated by the paucity of work of this kind, this article therefore explores the generic structures of problem statements in arts-based research article abstracts. The study got its data from purposively selected three hundred arts-based research article abstracts published in learned journals in the inner circle between 2001 and 2010. The data were analysed using insights from the generic structure potential, mood and modality aspects of SFG. Out of the five generic structural features that were found to characterise the abstracts, only two namely; Picking Out Inexistent Works(PIW) and Picking Out Inadequacy of Existing Works(PIEW) were found to be obligatory while the rest are optional. Variants of gap identification mood categories ( e.g. gap identification moods that pick out inexistent work and those that pick out inadequacy of existing works etc.) and modality categories (possibility modals) were also found in the  data. These enhance effective statement of the communicative goals of research problems in the abstracts.  The article concludes that studying the generic structure of problem statements in the abstracts has potency of providing useful insights into how, in what form and where the research problems are stated in the abstracts. Keywords: Research Article Abstracts, Problem Statements, Generic Structural Potential(GSP), Mood,  Modalit

Redressing the growing concern of the education sector in Nigeria

The status of the Nigerian educational system at the moment is unenviable. It is low in quality and standard, limited in its reach and disturbing in its future. There have been some deliberate attempt/efforts by government to redress the declining fortune of the educational system. Some International donor agencies, like UNICEF, the World Bank, UNESCO, and DFID are also collaborating with government at all levels with a view to coming up with a holistic approach in addressing educational concerns. The intention of this paper is to enhance debates on how to redress past mistakes and unintended failures within the Nigerian education policies, programmes and provisions. The paper is of the view that Nigeria requires a system that will insulate education from unnecessary politicization. Education formulation and policy consideration should be for the good of all. The paper is also of the view that there is need for a holistic reorientation, re-engineering and re-branding of education, especially teacher training and recruitments, if effective quality of education is to be achieved in Nigeria. Government should also ensure that all reports, pronouncements and positions canvassed by educational accreditation, visitations and probe panels are implemented. Key Words: Education, Minimum academic standard; Politicization of education; Quality, Teacher recruitment

Performance Analysis of a Constructed Dual Axis Solar Tracker

A major drawback to photovoltaic system is the fact that solar cells become useless at night. In the quest to overcome this, use of batteries, converters, backup generator and addition of extra panels at higher cost to PV grid have been proposed but the performance of the system with integration of the said components is still very much dependent how much solar energy directly reach the solar cell surface. A feasible approach to achieve this is solar tracking. In this study, performance evaluation of a constructed dual axis solar tracker integrated PV system was carried out for five weeks and compared with that of a flat fixed PV system installed at Ogbomoso, Nigeria (8° 08’ N, 4° 16’ E). It was discovered that the power and performance of dual axis system obtained averagely was 62.91 W compared to that of flat fixed PV System which was 47.88 W thereby improving the power output by 31.4%. Keywords: Solar Energy, Dual Axis System, Photovoltaic, Performance, Tropical region, Nigeria. DOI: 10.7176/APTA/75-0

Numerical prediction of the effects of longitudinal crack-like laminations on the tensile properties of wires

Carbon steel wires used for civil engineering applications may contain laminations. In the published literature, lamination was modelled as a separation between two faces with a finite distance. This technique is not suitable for modelling the line-type/crack-like laminations that may be present in the wires. In this paper, the effects of longitudinal line-type laminations on the tensile properties of carbon steel wires were investigated using Finite element (FE) analysis. Laminations were modelled as seams which truly simulate the line-type/crack-like laminations that have been reported to be instrumental to the failure of pre-stressing wires. FE analysis revealed that laminations do not significantly reduce the yield and ultimate loads of the wires. However, laminations cause a significant reduction in the displacement at fracture of the wires and the reduction is proportional to the length of the laminations. Consequently, the presence of laminations reduces the ductility of the wires, which reduces the ability of the wires to withstand overload the wires may experience in service without causing a catastrophic failure of structures where wires provide the required reinforcement

A New Efficient RNS Reverse Converter For The 4-Moduli Set {2^{n}, 2^{n}+1, 2^{n}-1, 2^{2n+1}-1}

In this paper, we propose a new efficient reverse converter for the 4-moduli set {2^{n}, 2^{n}+1, 2^{n}-1, 2^{2n+1}} based on a modified Chinese Remainder Theorem and Mixed Radix Conversion. Additionally, the resulting architecture is further reduced to obtain a reverse converter that utilizes only carry save adders, a multiplexer and carry propagate adders. The proposed converter has an area cost of (12n+2) FAs and (5n+1) HAs with a delay of (9n+6)t_{FA}+t_{MUX}. When compared with state of the art, our proposal demonstrates to be faster, at the expense of slightly more hardware resources. Further, the Area-Time square metric was computed which indicated that our proposed scheme outperforms the state of the art reverse converte

A Sociolinguistic Study of Conversations in Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People

This paper examines sociolinguistic features of conversational interactions among characters in Achebe’s A Man of the People. The aim is to differ from the largely stylistic examination of the text, and therefore, to study conversations in the mediated arena of literature to see how societal structures and beliefs are projected through the voices of fictive characters. For data, all the conversations in the text were sampled and analysed, using ethnographic theories with particular reference to Hymes’ SPEAKING. Our findings reveal that social and contextual variables such as cultural norms, topics, gender, situational impositions, etc. influence the interactions between and/ or among the characters in the text. These, as our findings reveal, constrain the linguistic choices made by the characters. These social-contextual variables also facilitate readers’ understanding of both the text and the world views advanced by the writer through the voices of the characters. This paper concludes that analyzing literary texts most especially prose works using Hymes’ SPEAKING aids a better understanding of the texts and the world views projected in the texts

Electro-Optical Characterization of Stannous Oxide Based Conductive Glass Fabricated Locally with Stannous Chloride Dihydrate Precursor

Most commercially available conductive oxides such as indium doped tin oxide (ITO) and fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) are expensive. This has made local production of alternative oxides necessary. This work demonstrates local production of transparent conducting stannous oxide (SnO) film via thermal decomposition of stannous chloride dihydrate (SnCl2·2H2O). The films were then characterized optically and electrically using UV/VIS spectrophotometer and four point probe, respectively. The thickness of the film increased linearly with precursor mass. While the sheet resistance and optical transmittance decreased, the optical absorbance increased with increased thickness. Average optical transmittance ranged between 85% and 94% and the sheet resistance lies between 62.89 Ω/sq and 84.57 Ω/sq. With these characteristics, the deposited film will be useful for optoelectronic applications

Geo-electrical characterisation for CO2 sequestration in porous media

Developing monitoring strategies for the detection and monitoring of possible CO2 leakage or migration from existing and anticipated storage media are important because they can provide an early warning of unplanned CO2 leakage from a storage site. While previous works have concentrated on silicate and carbonate porous media, this work explores geoelectrical techniques in basalt medium in a series of well-defined laboratory experiments. These were carried out to identify the key factors which affect geoelectrical monitoring technique of CO2 in porous media using low cost and efficient time domain reflectometry (TDR). The system has been set up for simultaneous measurement of the bulk electrical conductivity and bulk dielectric permittivity of CO2-water-porous media system in silica sand, basalt and limestone. Factors investigated include pH, pressure, temperature, salinity, salt type and the materials of the porous media. Results show that the bulk electrical conductivity and dielectric permittivity decrease as water saturation decreases. Noticeably, electrical conductivity and permittivity decrease due to the changes in water saturation and the relationship remains the highest in limestone except at the start of the experiment. Also, an increase in temperature, pressure and salinity tend to increase the bulk electrical conductivity (σb) and permittivity (εb) of the CO2-water-porous media system during the drainage experiment. On the other hand, pH and concentrations of different types of salt do not seem to have significant effect on the geoelectrical characteristics of the system. It was evident that Archie’s equation fit the experimental results well and the parameters obtained were in good agreement with those in the literatures. The regression shows a good reliability in the prediction of electrical properties during the monitoring process of CO2 sequestration

Increased central adiposity may not underlie the marked elevation of IL-6 in Diabetes Mellitus patients in South-West Nigeria

Background: Chronic inflammation is linked to disorders of obesity, insulin resistance and DM2. This reflects as increase in proinflammatory cytokines including IL-6. In Nigeria, there is no study that has measured IL-6 in diabetics, in spite of having the highest number of diabetics in Africa. Methods: The twenty-eight DM2 patients and 13 controls recruited for this study had their BP, BMI, waist circumference (WC) and waist-hip-ratio (WHR) measured. They also had fasting plasma IL-6, fasting plasma glucose, total cholesterol (TC), Triglyceride (Tg), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), urea, creatinine, aspartate transaminases (AST), alanine transferases (ALT), total protein (TP) and albumin determined. Results: Mean age was 51.83 years ± 13.28, with diabetics significantly older than controls (56.61yrs. ±9.62 vs. 41.54 years ± 14.53) P < 0.05. The mean IL-6 in diabetics (194.77pg/ml ± 166.16) was significantly higher than controls’ (26.29pg/ml ± 6.65) at p < 0.01. No significant difference in mean BMI in diabetics and controls. But WC and WHR of diabetics (100.75cm ± 18.47; 1.01 ± 0.14) were significant higher than in controls (88.77cm ± 13.36; 0.88 ± 0.07) at p < 0.05 (WC; p value 0.043) and p < 0.01(WHR; p value 0.002). Among diabetics, there were significant correlations between IL-6 and Tg (p<0.01, r = 0.007**), IL-6 and LDL-C (p<0.05, r = 0.028*), IL-6 and AST (p<0.05, r = 0.041*) and IL-6 and ALT (p<0.01, r = 0.004**) Conclusion: Elevated IL-6 in DM2 patients in South West Nigeria correlates with liver transaminases and not increased markers of central adiposity