Emerging Themes in African Oral Narratives: A Case Study of Abagusii Community of Western Kenya

The transience and preservation of the oral heritage in Africa has not been accorded due attention. Many critics are on record arguing that the oral heritage in Africa is faced with extinction. For a long time therefore, the focus has been on mere collection and documentation of oral forms for posterity. To the contrary, however, research by such contemporary scholars as Peter Wasamba, Isidore Okpewho, Ruth Finnegan, Abiola Irele, Wanjiku Kabira, Wole Soyinka, among others has proved that the oral tradition is as vibrant as ever, and a lot more complex than presupposed. These scholars have variously argued that the role of orality need not be seen in the past but rather as an art form that serves people across generations and societies. One area that has not been addressed exhaustively, therefore, and which is the loci of this study is the resilience and transience of not just oral narratives but other oral forms as well. It is no longer tenable to argue that oral literature is passed from generation to generation without much of a change. Nor is it plausible to argue that the greatest asset for oral artists is rote memory. As a matter of fact, modern orators have risen above the limitations of memory and performed oral items that are well within the oral tradition and, at the same time, responsive to contemporary realities. In this particular paper, therefore, we seek to address ourselves to both the resilience and transience of oral narratives in the face of shifting social dispensations. Much as we recognize the significance of collecting and preserving oral forms for posterity, there is need to show how various social forces have impacted on the nature and character of the oral forms. The following questions guide our study: i)                     What is the relevance of the oral narrative in a modernizing society? ii)                   What role does the performer or oral artist play in the resilience and transience of oral narratives? iii)                  What salient elements of the oral narrative enable it to be resilient and transient? Key words: traditional narratives, modern narratives, theme, motif, story line, plot, performance, philosophy, transience, variants, oral tradition

Telemedicine in the age of the pandemics: The prospects of web-based remote patient monitoring systems for orthopaedic ambulatory care management in the developing economies

Objective The goal of this research was to demonstrate the efficacy of telemedicine via design, implementation and evaluation of a web-based remote patient monitoring system (WB-RPMS) across the tertiary/university teaching hospitals in a developing country Nigeria, as a tool to continue to expand access to an affordable and resilient tertiary healthcare system through the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic or any future disruptions. Methods This research employed an agile and human-centred design thinking philosophy, which saw the researchers iteratively collaborate with clinicians across the system development value chain. It also employed qualitative and quantitative research methods for new system evaluations. After the system's development, a 20-patient sample was randomly selected from members of the National Youth Service Corp to evaluate the WB-RPMS Patient Portal for usability and user experience through a survey based on the system usability scale. Again, the COREQ standards for reporting research result were adopted for this study. Results The evaluation of the WB-RPMS Patient Portal by a select patient sample showed that 95.0% of the respondents believed that they would like to use the system frequently. It was also discovered that 90.0% of all respondents also indicated that they found the Patient Portal to be simple; 85.0% of the respondents believed and indicated that the WB-RPMS Patient Portal was easy to use. Conclusions The result of the usability evaluation of the developed WB-RPMS Patient Portal showed that it was well received by the select patient sample and by the clinicians who participated in the development process. In fact, the performance of the system shows that it has the potential to remotely support and sustain improved access to affordable healthcare for outpatients in developing countries even during times of uncertainties and disruptions as recently occasioned by COVID-19 pandemic.Peer Reviewe

GAS LIFTING FOR PRODUCTION OPTIMIZATION USING EXTRA-HIGH-PRESSURE (XHP) GAS FROM NATURAL GAS WELLS WITHOUT COMPRESSION

Artificial lift techniques are used when reservoir pressure drops below the fluid hydrostatic column weight in the well. A compressor station supplies high-pressure gas for the gas lift system, which includes a gas distribution manifold, gas lift lines to the well heads, and gas lift valves. Gas lift has many benefits, but the source of gas and the number of compression stages needed to lift reservoir fluid to the surface are major drawbacks. This paper critically examined this drawback and found a steady source of high-pressure gas that eliminates the need for compression. This study used PROSPER to determine the depths at which gas lift valves will be installed, the maximum gas injection rate of 0.81761 MMscf/day, the maximum oil production rate of 1183.4 STB/D, and the best valve type. Although the extra-high pressure gas (XHP) gas pressure needed to be reduced to properly aerate the fluid hydrostatic column as the gas lift valves (GLVs) opens, this pressure reduction (gas expansion) caused gas cooling/freezing, which is a critical concern on the lift gas path. Therefore, a heat exchanger and water bathe heater preheated the XHP gas to reduce the J-T phenomenon and ensure flow

Histological, immunohistochemical and transcriptomic characterization of human tracheoesophageal fistulas

Esophageal atresia (EA) and tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF) are relatively frequently occurring foregut malformations. EA/TEF is thought to have a strong genetic component. Not much is known regarding the biological processes disturbed or which cell type is affected in patients. This hampers the detection of the responsible culprits (genetic or environmental) for the origin of these congenital anatomical malformations. Therefore, we examined gene expression patterns in the TEF and compared them to the patterns in esophageal, tracheal and lung control samples. We studied tissue organization and key proteins using immunohistochemistry. There were clear differences between TEF and control samples. Based on the number of differentially expressed genes as well as histological characteristics, TEFs were most similar to normal esophagus. The BMP-signaling pathway, actin cytoskeleton and extracellular matrix pathways are downregulated in TEF. Genes involved in smooth muscle contraction are overexpressed in TEF compared to esophagus as well as trachea. These enriched pathways indicate myofibroblast activated fibrosis. TEF represents a specific tissue type with large contributions of intestinal smooth muscle cells and neurons. All major cell types present in esophagus are present-albeit often structurally disorganized-in TEF, indicating that i

Event Horizon Telescope observations of the jet launching and collimation in Centaurus A

Abstract: Very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of active galactic nuclei at millimetre wavelengths have the power to reveal the launching and initial collimation region of extragalactic radio jets, down to 10–100 gravitational radii (rg ≡ GM/c2) scales in nearby sources1. Centaurus A is the closest radio-loud source to Earth2. It bridges the gap in mass and accretion rate between the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in Messier 87 and our Galactic Centre. A large southern declination of −43° has, however, prevented VLBI imaging of Centaurus A below a wavelength of 1 cm thus far. Here we show the millimetre VLBI image of the source, which we obtained with the Event Horizon Telescope at 228 GHz. Compared with previous observations3, we image the jet of Centaurus A at a tenfold higher frequency and sixteen times sharper resolution and thereby probe sub-lightday structures. We reveal a highly collimated, asymmetrically edge-brightened jet as well as the fainter counterjet. We find that the source structure of Centaurus A resembles the jet in Messier 87 on ~500 rg scales remarkably well. Furthermore, we identify the location of Centaurus A’s SMBH with respect to its resolved jet core at a wavelength of 1.3 mm and conclude that the source’s event horizon shadow4 should be visible at terahertz frequencies. This location further supports the universal scale invariance of black holes over a wide range of masses5, 6

Selective dynamical imaging of interferometric data

Recent developments in very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) have made it possible for the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) to resolve the innermost accretion flows of the largest supermassive black holes on the sky. The sparse nature of the EHT’s (u, v)-coverage presents a challenge when attempting to resolve highly time-variable sources. We demonstrate that the changing (u, v)-coverage of the EHT can contain regions of time over the course of a single observation that facilitate dynamical imaging. These optimal time regions typically have projected baseline distributions that are approximately angularly isotropic and radially homogeneous. We derive a metric of coverage quality based on baseline isotropy and density that is capable of ranking array configurations by their ability to produce accurate dynamical reconstructions. We compare this metric to existing metrics in the literature and investigate their utility by performing dynamical reconstructions on synthetic data from simulated EHT observations of sources with simple orbital variability. We then use these results to make recommendations for imaging the 2017 EHT Sgr A* data sethttp://iopscience.iop.org/2041-8205Physic