Radioactive method enables determination of surface areas rapidly and accurately

Radioactive krypton adsorption technique is used to determine the surface area of more than one sample of material simultaneously

A Configuration of Socio-Political Dialectics in Nigerian Pidgin English: Trends in Peter Onwudijo’s Poetry

Peter Onwundijo’s poetry collection, De Wahala for Wazobia (2007), comments on the contemporary Nigeria’s pitiable social problems. The poet employs Nigerian Pidgin English, not only as a dialectal tool to examine the issue of Nigeria’s amalgamation, but also as a lingua franca, which aptly describes the polity of multilingual Nigeria. It addresses the myriad hydra-headed issues like corruption, educational decay, election malpractices, neocolonialism, and insecurity among other forms of vices plaguing the nation which continue to militate against her development. The poems were analysed using sociolinguistics and semiotic theories as frameworks. The result of the analyses showed that the poet’s ability to effectively use the Nigerian Pidgin English to address such important issues does not make the language inferior when compared to the other established languages of the world. Rather, it should be seen as a language (second) that reflects creativity, productivity, simplicity, acceptability and understanding among the Nigerians. Indeed, it makes for a wider understanding of the poet’s major concern, as the pidgin, in Nigeria, is often being described as “the language of the people” The study appraised the collection as an attempt at demystifying the Nigerian Pidgin English as well as evaluating its relevance for modern Nigerian poetry in its quest to radicalize the political and economic situation in Nigeria

The dynamics of the Language of newspaper headlines in Nigeria

This paper has looked at the dynamics of the structures of headlines. Related literature was reviewed on functions and influence of the print media, mass media and language development, and studies in headlines, to give the work the necessary theoretical foundation. The study employed survey approach to look at reportage of headlines of some newspapers in Nigeria. Three questions guided this study: What are the types of headlines cast for the stories? What is the syntactic structure of the headlines? What is the level of social responsibility displayed by the editors, in casting the headlines? A total of 24 headlines were purposively collected as data, and analyzed. The analysis has revealed that ‘plain’, ‘headlines with pointers’, and ‘speech as headlines’ characterized our data. Also, most of the headlines are cast in simple sentence structures. This result is significant for mass media teachers as they apply principles and theories of language, in their business of teaching mass media courses, daily

Exploration of Proverb as a Crucial Device in Tunde Kelani’s Saworoide

This treatise explores Tunde Kelani’s movie Saworide (1999), with a view to examining the functions of proverbs in movie production. A textual analysis of some selected proverbs in the movie was carried out to demonstrate the implications of this phenomenon in an attempt by the producer to project the themes of political legitimacy, accountability and institutional checks on corruption in a changing socio-political structure. The study highlighted the importance of proverbs in films, and showcased how proverbs serve as a crucial device of story-telling in the re-creation of a genuine and believable Nigerian democratic story. The study revealed that proverbs in the movie serve as material resources in generating the plot development, criticizing actors’ actions, depicting, transmitting and preserving the Yoruba culture, and projecting the moral and thematic purposes of the movi

Traditionalism as a source of Change: Ola Rotimi’s Kurunmi as an epitome

Ola Rotimi’s Kurunmi has generally been classified as a tragedy, historical play, postcolonial text, satire etc. Such general classifications have limited the analyses of the play to thematic thoughts such as cultural clash, postcolonial disillusionment, and its understanding as an emblem of the Greek dramatic tradition. For this reason, this paper examines the issue of traditionalism in the play centering on the faithfulness of the writer in utilizing actual historical materials and personalities of the 19th century Yoruba war between Ijaye and Ibadan armies (in Nigeria) and its implication on the general sensibility of the society. The paper examines the role of the major character of the play, Kurunmi, as a traditionalist and how his display of epic heroism helps produce resounding themes of socio-cultural relevance. It argues that a conscious reading of the personalities, attributes, and egos of Kurunmi as a traditionalist would make the reader have the privilege of having a real sense of the complex nature of Kurunmi’s character rather than seeing him as a prototype of a Greek tragic hero

Microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of carbon monolith via a soft-template method using resorcinol and formaldehyde as carbon precursor and pluronic F127 as template

A new microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of carbon monolith is reported in this work. The process uses microwave heating at 100 °C under acidic condition by employing a triblock copolymer F127 as the template, and resorcinol–formaldehyde as the carbon precursor. Scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nitrogen sorption measurements, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray studies and thermogravimetic analysis were used to characterize the synthesized material. The carbon monolith is crack-free, mesoporous and has a high surface area of 697 m²/g. The results demonstrate that the microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis is a fast and simple approach to obtain carbon monoliths, as it reduces effectively the synthesis time from hours to a few minutes which could be an advantage in the large scale production of the material

An alternative colorimetric method for the determination of chloramphenicol

Purpose: To develop a simple, cheap, fast, accurate, sensitive and precise colorimetric method that can be used for the determination of chloramphenicol. Method: Chloramphenicol was reduced in a mixture of glacial acetic acid and water using titanium (III) chloride at room temperature within 10 min. The reduced product was then heated for 20 min with p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde to yield the final product whose absorbance was used for the determination of the concentration of chloramphenicol. Results obtained with this method were compared with those obtained with the microbiological assay of chloramphenicol. Result: The final product of the two step reaction was greenish – yellow in colour,, absorbed strongly in the visible region and obeyed Beer's law at &#955;max = 440 nm. The method developed was sensitive and accurately determined chloramphenicol in the presence of common excipients and in different dosage forms. There was statistically no significant difference (p < 0.05) between the results with the method developed and those obtained with the microbiological assay of chloramphenicol. Conclusion: A simple, fast, cheap, precise, sensitive and accurate colorimetric method has been developed that could be routinely used for the determination of chloramphenicol in bulk drug and in different dosage forms. The advantage of the method is its speed and simplicity. Key words: Chloramphenicol, colorimetric assay, microbiological assay, p-dimethyl-aminobenzaldehyde. Trop J Pharm Res, December 2003; 2(2): 215-22

Tropospheric delay in microwave propagation in Nigeria

Satellite communication systems suffer from the systematic error of tropospheric delay. Accurate estimation of this delay is essential for communication budget and planning. This study investigates the tropospheric delay in three Nigeria cities: Abuja, Lagos, Port-Harcourt using two different models (Saastominen and Hopfield). Three year atmospheric data for surface pressure, relative humidity and temperature obtained at 5-mins interval were acquired from the Tropospheric Data Acquisition Network (TRODAN) archives. Computed radio refractivity values showed distinct seasonal dependence in Abuja with low and high values during the dry and wet season respectively. The Hopfield model predicts higher hydrostatic delay values than the Saastominen model. In the non-hydrostatic delay, the two models converge to a single values at high temperature. Theorems were proposed with proofs to explain the relationship observed between the two models

Production of cellulosic ethanol from wood sawdust

Energy from fossil fuels has played a very important role in our lives, but such an important role has been clouded out due to the environment hazards caused from fossil emissions.  This has led to a new dimension in energy utilization known as renewable energy fuels.  To fully support this type of energy from biological mass, adequate biomass source must be harnessed.  This work thus was carried out to utilize a local available biomass waste as an alternative source of ethanol which is currently used for spark ignition engines as a renewable energy fuel.  It also determined the yield of ethanol from the sawdust used.  The sawdust sample was collected from the Nsukka Sawmill (Timbershade).  Materials used included 18 m (78% concentration) of sulphuric acid, 6 m of sodium hydroxide for hydrolysis, and fermentation process.  The hydrolysis involves the extraction of fermentable sugar from a cellulosic biomass.  The sawdust of sulfuric acid mixture was allowed to sit for 48 hours, then the distilled water was used to dilute in order to bring its pH between 5.0 - 6.0.  10 kg of sawdust gave 500 cm3 of ethanol using Beer-Lambert plot of ethanol water mixture.  The success of the extraction of ethanol shows there are possibilities for improvement. Keywords: Biofuel, climate change, ethanol yield, fermentation, wood sawdus

Morphodynamics in a Tropical Shallow Lagoon: Observation and Inferences of Change

The Lagos Lagoon system and its adjacent tidal basins exhibit dynamics that are significantly different on both spatial and temporal scales. As urbanisation and human activities around the lagoon have intensified, the volume of sediment deposited into the basin is increasing on a daily basis. Changes on the lagoon bed over a 6-year time scale using repeated bathymetric data (2008, 2014) are presented, and the related data acquisition technique is explained. Data reduction is followed by analysis of the lagoon water bed dynamics using abstracted profile lines from the bathymetric data within a GIS environment. The results of the significant accretion and erosion within the lagoon system were analyzed spatially to quantify the volume of sediment gain or loss on the lagoon bed. The findings partly show that over 6 years, an average height of 0.16 m was gained by the lagoon. This amount translates into an annual accretion rate of 0.026 m. These findings enhance the prospect of verifying in the long term whether the Lagos Lagoon is gradually disappearing. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this research reveals for the first time the complex evolutionary changes (channel movement, accretion, erosion, infill and movement of shoal) on the Lagos Lagoon bed