The Use of Lexical Cohesion Elements in the Writing of ESL Learners

This study investigated the use of lexical elements of cohesion in the essay writing of students of English as a Second Language. Two hundred essays of final year students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka were collated and analyzed by the researchers in order to identify the lexical elements used to achieve cohesion in writing. The result showed that students used three lexical elements as postulated by Gutwinski in varying degrees in their writings. These include: repetition, synonyms, and lexical sets (collocations). Students tended to use more of repetitions and made minimal use of synonyms and lexical sets to achieve cohesion in writing. This has led to poorly written essays by students. It also implies that lexical cohesion elements should be taught in schools to enable students use them appropriately in writing

Impact of social media language on writings of the undergraduates of university of Nigeria, Nsukka

This paper investigated the impact of social media language on writings of the undergraduates of University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The aim of this paper was to identify the extent to which SMS language has influenced the writings of undergraduates. Also, to confirm or refute the arguments and counteraugments that had raised dust in the academics over the presupposed negative effects of this form of media discourse on students’ academic writings. This study draws insights from Corder’s Error Analysis. The corpus of this study was gotten from an eight-item-questionnaire and confirmatory essay test administered to forty students selected at random. Data elicited from the questionnaires were  analyzed quantitatively using the simple percentage and represented in bar charts and lines respectively; while the students’ essays were scanned for linguistic features of SMS. The findings revealed that students’ use of SMS is pervasive but it does not significantly impact writings negatively. The researchers, therefore, concluded that SMS language does not pose major threats to students’ formal writings. Thus, they suggested that users of SMS should try as much as they could to always check their works carefully in order to avoid committing errors in formal writings.Keywords: Error Analysis, impact, linguistic features, social media language, and writin

Repair the old concrete parts of the Hydro Plant "LUMBARDHI" in Decan-Kosova

Request for reactivate the Hydro Plant is directly depend of the state of the accumulatewater basin. The present state of the part of concrete was critical and impossible forusing the water accumulations.The concrete parts are damage during the long period of attack from different factors.Removing and replacement of the parts of old concrete is directly in connections with the examinationsof concrete and after the proposal the new materials and methodology for repairing.In this study work we used the nondestructive and destructive methods for analyses the existingconcrete state for proposal the new materials, especially in the surface treatments

Assessing Problem Areas in Senior Secondary Students’ Use of the English Concord

This research succinctly explicates the areas of problem in Senior Secondary Students’ use of the English Concord in written texts. Language is a social property and has rules that determine how words should be matched to achieve effective communication. Concord in English deals with those rules that govern the co-occurrence of words in sentences. This work is a practical classroom experience and it x–rays the students’ performance in the grammatical, notional and proximity concords respectively. The findings are clearly presented in statistical tables and each of the tables shows the students’ performance in each of the areas. The result shows that the students performed fairly well in notional and proximity concords. The total results, however, led to the conclusion that the students are yet to attain competence in the English concord for good communication

The Production and Perception of the Affricate /tʃ/ and the Fricative /ʃ/ by Igala ELS Users

A second language user is one who has his own language (L1) and probably mastered all there is to the sound system of his L1. The already existing language system makes second language learning difficult thereby resulting in what is called ‘errors’ as an effect of interference. Phonologically, it is a hard task learning a second language because each language has its unique phonology. This paper x-rayed the difficulties encountered by Igala L2 users with reference to the production and perception of the affricate /tʃ/ and the fricative /ʃ/. The study used carefully prepared sentences containing the two sounds under study to elicit data from the target population. The data were analyzed using frequency and percentage counts. From the analysis it was discovered that there exist production problems in the use of the affricate /tʃ/ and the fricative /ʃ/ by Igala users of English as a Second Language where /tʃ/ is substituted for /ʃ/ and vice versa.  Conclusion drawn from the result was the need for Igala users to aspire for competence in their use of English as a second language particularly the phonological aspects because being proficient in any language begins with good understanding and correct usage of the sound systems thereby bringing about intelligibility

An assessment of job satisfaction among primary health care workers in Rivers state, Nigeria

Background: Primary Health Care (PHC) is considered to be a more appropriate approach to health, and the health system, improving access to health services, as well as disease prevention. The availability and efficiency of PHC is a key determinant of the overall health and wellbeing of a people, and a useful yardstick for assessment of a nation's health system. Hence, PHC workforce are at the vanguard of essential health service delivery through direct contact with grassroots community members, within and without the health facilities, for provision of preventive, treatment, referral and follow-up health services. Poor motivation and non-retention of PHC workers weakens the health systems' ability to meet the above goals.Aim: To assessed the job satisfaction of primary health care workers in Rivers State, Nigeria.Methodology: The study utilized the descriptive cross-sectional design and the mixed methods of data collection. The quantitative method used semi-structured, pretested, self- administered questionnaires to obtain information on socio-demographic and occupational characteristics, job satisfaction, motivation, frustration, retention potentials and awareness of existing policies and incentives of respondents. The respondents which included Community Health Extension Workers (CHEW), Community Health Officers (CHO), nurses and doctors in Primary health facilities in the State, were selected using the multistage sampling method. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 software and results presented using tables and charts.Results: A total of 378 respondents participated in the study. Nurses constituted 47.6% of the respondents, with equal proportions of CHEWs and CHOs [23.8% and 23.8% respectively] and 4.8% were doctors. The mean age of the respondents was39.8±8.1 years; with 89.7% females and 10.3% males. Of all the respondents, 79.6% were married,82% were senior cadre staff and 78.8% were Pentecostal Christians. Ikwerre, Ogoni and Kalabari had the highest distribution in ethnicity (19.3%, 14.8% and14.0% respectively). Among the respondents, 75.7% had worked for less than 7 years in their current facility while 82.9% had worked for same duration in their previous facility. Almost two third 240 (63.5%) reported that their workplace was far from their residence while 12 (3.2%) stated that it was very close. A high proportion of the respondents (78.3%) were satisfied with the general working condition in their Primary Health Care facility while 21.7% of the respondents were satisfied with the pay and promotion potentials of their work place. Notably, while 97.9% of the respondents were satisfied with their work relationships, 57.7% were satisfied with the use of their skills and abilities at their workplace and 88.1% of the respondents were satisfied with their work activities. These gave a good job satisfaction score for 88.9% of the respondents. Profession, community, distance from work and duration of work were significant factors (p < 0.05).Conclusion: This study concluded that age, marital status, profession, and location of health facility, duration of work played vital roles in level of satisfaction of PHC workers. Hence, offering opportunities for professional advancement through training of the healthcare workers though already included in the Nigerian National Healthcare policy, should be efficiently implemented and monitored by the government and other relevant stakeholders to improve job satisfaction and in turn quality health service delivery.Keywords: Job Satisfaction, Healthcare Worker

Molecular hierarchy of mammary differentiation yields refined markers of mammary stem cells

The partial purification of mouse mammary gland stem cells (MaSCs) using combinatorial cell surface markers (Lin-CD24+CD29hCD49fh) has improved our understanding of their role in normal development and breast tumorigenesis. Despite the significant improvement in MaSC enrichment, there is presently no methodology that adequately isolates pure MaSCs. Seeking new markers of MaSCs, we characterized the stem-like properties and expression signature of label-retaining cells from the mammary gland of mice expressing a controllable H2b-GFP transgene. In this system, the transgene expression can be repressed in a doxycycline-dependent fashion, allowing isolation of slowly dividing cells with retained nuclear GFP signal. Here, we show that H2b-GFPh cells reside within the predicted MaSC compartment and display greater mammary reconstitution unit frequency compared with H2b-GFPneg MaSCs. According to their transcriptome profile, H2b-GFPh MaSCs are enriched for pathways thought to play important roles in adult stem cells. We found Cd1d, a glycoprotein expressed on the surface of antigen-presenting cells, to be highly expressed by H2b-GFPh MaSCs, and isolation of Cd1d+ MaSCs further improved the mammary reconstitution unit enrichment frequency to nearly a single-cell level. Additionally, we functionally characterized a set of MaSC-enriched genes, discovering factors controlling MaSC survival. Collectively, our data provide tools for isolating a more precisely defined population of MaSCs and point to potentially critical factors for MaSC maintenance

The FEBEX benchmark test: case definition and comparison of modelling approaches

The FEBEX (Full-scale Engineered Barriers Experiment in Crystalline Host Rock) ‘‘in situ’’ test was installed at the Grimsel Test Site underground laboratory (Switzerland) and is a near-to-real scale simulation of the Spanish reference concept of deep geological storage in crystalline host rock. A modelling exercise, aimed at predicting field behaviour, was divided in three parts. In Part A, predictions for both the total water inflow to the tunnel as well as the water pressure changes induced by the boring of the tunnel were required. In Part B, predictions for local field variables, such as temperature, relative humidity, stresses and displacements at selected points in the bentonite barrier, and global variables, such as the total input power to the heaters were required. In Part C, predictions for temperature, stresses, water pressures and displacements in selected points of the host rock were required. Ten Modelling Teams from Europe, North America and Japan were involved in the analysis of the test. Differences among approaches may be found in the constitutive models used, in the simplifications made to the balance equations and in the geometric symmetries considered. Several aspects are addressed in the paper: the basic THM physical phenomena which dominate the test response are discussed, a comparison of different modelling results with actual measurements is presented and a discussion is given to explain the performance of the various predictions.Peer Reviewe

Current tidal power technologies and their suitability for applications in coastal and marine areas

A considerable body of research is currently being performed to quantify available tidal energy resources and to develop efficient devices with which to harness them. This work is naturally focussed on maximising power generation from the most promising sites, and a review of the literature suggests that the potential for smaller scale, local tidal power generation from shallow near-shore sites has not yet been investigated. If such generation is feasible, it could have the potential to provide sustainable electricity for nearby coastal homes and communities as part of a distributed generation strategy, and would benefit from easier installation and maintenance, lower cabling and infrastructure requirements and reduced capital costs when compared with larger scale projects. This article reviews tidal barrages and lagoons, tidal turbines, oscillating hydrofoils and tidal kites to assess their suitability for small-scale electricity generation in shallow waters. This is achieved by discussing the power density, scalability, durability, maintainability, economic potential and environmental impacts of each concept. The performance of each technology in each criterion is scored against axial-flow turbines, allowing for them to be ranked according to their overall suitability. The review suggests that tidal kites and range devices are not suitable for small-scale shallow water applications due to depth and size requirements respectively. Cross-flow turbines appear to be the most suitable technology, as they have high power densities and a maximum size that is not constrained by water depth