Establishing the nexus between literary criticism and literary theory

The study examines ways in which literary criticisms draws from literary theories. The literary critics in order to carry out efficient critical work will not work in abstraction or without having a base. As a result of this, there are usually critical theories. From which the literary critics rely in carrying out their work of literary criticism. The focus of this paper is therefore to examine the various ways in which literary criticism draws from or relies on critical theories. To carry out this study, the researcher embarked on library research and studies books on the related area. Thus adequate information was gathered and analyzed which was used in writing the work. It was observed that there is the need for the literary critics to base their work on literary theories in order to make their work reliable. It is hoped that this study will be useful to the students of literature as well as to the literary writers and critics

Nigerian literary artists and protection of African values in the presentage of urbanization: the Igbo example

The work is a survey on the part which literary artists can play in protecting the much cherishedAfrican values from the influence of urbanization andmodernity.TheAfrican, in their traditional life, see certain things as valuable. Obviously, it is these valuable things that make life worth living. TheAfrican values give anAfrican different cultural personality and enable him to acquire necessary wisdom and knowledge that help him to make his positive contribution to society. Thus, theseAfrican valuesmake lifemeaningful. Presently, the trend in Africa is the pursuance of nation-building and every person's sincere effort to uplift his living standard. Consequently there has been a rapid growth of cities and urban centers to the detriment of some most cherished African values such as a large family, love for and practice of the extended family system, respect for elders, religion, hospitality and love for community, greeting, honesty, integrity etc.Thismotivated the researcher into finding out the part which the Igbo literary artist can play in creating awareness with regards to the issue of protecting and retaining the much cherished African values in the present age of urbanization and modernity. To do this effectively, the researcher reviewed many published works and also consulted the internet. Thus, enough information was gathered and analysed. The theoretical framework adopted for the study isAristotle's Rhetorical Theory. This literary approach is relevant to this study because it is a discourse type that persuades an audience to think and feel or act in a particular way. It is hoped that this study will help theAfricans, particularly the Igb

The Cure: Making a game of gene selection for breast cancer survival prediction

Motivation: Molecular signatures for predicting breast cancer prognosis could greatly improve care through personalization of treatment. Computational analyses of genome-wide expression datasets have identified such signatures, but these signatures leave much to be desired in terms of accuracy, reproducibility and biological interpretability. Methods that take advantage of structured prior knowledge (e.g. protein interaction networks) show promise in helping to define better signatures but most knowledge remains unstructured. Crowdsourcing via scientific discovery games is an emerging methodology that has the potential to tap into human intelligence at scales and in modes previously unheard of. Here, we developed and evaluated a game called The Cure on the task of gene selection for breast cancer survival prediction. Our central hypothesis was that knowledge linking expression patterns of specific genes to breast cancer outcomes could be captured from game players. We envisioned capturing knowledge both from the players prior experience and from their ability to interpret text related to candidate genes presented to them in the context of the game. Results: Between its launch in Sept. 2012 and Sept. 2013, The Cure attracted more than 1,000 registered players who collectively played nearly 10,000 games. Gene sets assembled through aggregation of the collected data clearly demonstrated the accumulation of relevant expert knowledge. In terms of predictive accuracy, these gene sets provided comparable performance to gene sets generated using other methods including those used in commercial tests. The Cure is available at http://genegames.org/cure

Inclusive Education in Nigeria: Access and Equity

Inclusive education involves bringing together persons with disabilities and the non-disabled to study in the same classroom with adaptable facilities and equipment. With this arrangement in place the assistive technology becomes an unconditional requirement for children with special needs. It involves public and private programmes and laws. And it involves a number of other things including people who work in the "helping" professions. This paper examines some of the basic requirement for the inclusive programme to be feasible in any environment. The attitudes of people towards those with  disabilities globally, the challenges of people’s attitudes towards disability in Africa, in Nigeria and the challenges of people with disabilities themselves with a view to encourage the non- disabled to develop positive attitudes towards the disabled for social change. Recommendations are made for a way forward.

Adoption of irrigation technology to combat household food insecurity in the resource-constrained farming systems of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Sustainable water management has been identified as a powerful tool to combat persistent food insecurity in South Africa’s poor rural communities. The irrigation revitalisation scheme was launched in the first decade of post-Apartheid South Africa and focused on smallholder farmers in the former homeland areas. However, the adoption of irrigation technology has been limited, while official data point to worsening poverty rates and food insecurity as agricultural output declines in the face of rising prices. There is thus strong policy interest to ascertain the circumstances in which irrigation adoption can be enhanced. A cross-sectional research design was utilised to collect data from 200 farmers (adopters and non-adopters) selected through a combination of purposive and stratified sampling methods. Probit regression results suggest that irrigation adoption is influenced by distance to the irrigation scheme, age of the farmer, family size, credit access, extension contact, and group membership. Water management programmes that address community access to irrigation water are likely to enhance adoption of irrigation technology, with credit access and extension provided to ensure sustainable use of the technology.Keywords: Eastern Cape, Extension services, Food insecurity, Irrigation adoption,Smallholder farmer

A systematic review of research into the management of manufacturing capabilities

Our study aims to explore the past and present knowledge related to the management of manufacturing capabilities and to assess the extent to which our knowledge of this field has developed. It places specific emphasis on the philosophical foundations of the field, while also providing a set of directions for future research. A systematic review is applied, covering 104 articles. The authors unfold a strong dominance of the positivist paradigm, and call for a more balanced and informed approach in philosophical and, more specifically, methodological selection by scholars. In terms of the research content, a strong bias exists towards measuring the impact that certain manufacturing capabilities, and various configurations of these, may have on key performance indicators, such as cost. Our review warns on the dangers of following a dominant paradigmatic stance and on the limitations of researching a limited area of the complex and dynamic manufacturing capabilities arena

Application of Electrical Resistivity and Ground Magnetic Investigation of Ironstones Deposits in Abiati Akamkpa Lga Cross River State, Nigeria

Ironstones form part of production materials for cement production and is locally sourced in abaiti village as supply materials for nearby Dangote Cement Company. Geophysical investigations using vertical Electrical sounding technique and ground magnetic survey were employed to investigate the depth of occurrence of the suppose iron or deposits. Two profiles each of VES and ground magnetic data were acquired using ABEM SAS 1000 and GSM-19T magnetometer.The data sets were processed using manual and computer processed techniques. The magnetic data were corrected manually for diurnal variation corrections and plotted as anomaly profiles while the VES data was processed using the zoody software programme plotted as modelled plots. The magnetic depth results indicate that the iron ores are between 4-5m with magnetic susceptibilities of -40nT to -160nT. While the VES results indicate that the iron ore is exposed from surface to depth of 7.0m with resistivity values ranging between 4090.7 ohm/m - 5295.1 ohm/m . The study reveals a thin occurrence of about 7.0m of ironstone deposit and will require a more detail investigation in computing the volume of deposit in place