Archives-December  

The present article is an attempt to study Annie Proulx’s short story collection: Fine Just the Way It Is in the light of Judith Butler’s concepts of vulnerability and gender performativity. According to Butler, all bodies are manipulated by regulatory norms and existing cultural power to perform a predefined gender role as well as vulnerable from the start to the world of others. By exploring the stories through Butlerian concepts of gender performativity and vulnerability, this article presents that Proulx’s characters not only gain their recognition in a political project through following their gender performativity, but also experience the collective condition of vulnerability to the socioeconomic structures as well as conditioned by power. Therefore, this analysis inevitably seeks to particularize the way Proulx’s characters portray the norms of performativity which have to be performed in order to be recognized in social realm through ‘desire’ and ‘enactment’. Furthermore, by paralyzing Butler’s concept of vulnerability to the literary pieces, the present study delineates the situations in which characters experience ‘violence’, ‘insecurity’, and ‘lack of autonomy’ instigated by interdependency and imposed conventions of social structures.

The history of cannabis in Morocco goes back several centuries. Its consumption was subject to social norms limiting its market as well as its impact on society. The advent of the protectorate (1912-1956) made cannabis an economic product of great value through a monopoly of its cultivation and marketing despite the undeniable impact on public health. This article traces the history of cannabis in Morocco from its earliest origins, passing through multiple historical events that marked the place of this product in Moroccan society and finally pausing on the great change that will experience the cultivation and consumption of cannabis under the protectorate.

A carotid web (CW), an atypical fibromuscular dysplasia, is rare and may cause ischemic stroke. It is challenging to recognize a carotid web promptly and treat it accordingly. We report a case of young man who has no history of stroke, and initially consulted for vertigo and cervical plusatility sensation.

This study analysed the efficiency of resource use in cassava production in Ayedaade Local Government Area of Osun State, Nigeria. It focused on the socio-economic characteristics of cassava farmers, input-output relationship and the efficiency of resource use in cassava production. Data were collected from a random sampling of 120 cassava farmers using pre-tested questionnaire. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, regression technique and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Result showed that the average age of the respondents was 49 years;average year of schooling was 7 and average households’ size consistsof 7 members. The result further revealed that the average farm size of the respondents was 4.59 hectares. The double-Log function of the multiple regression analysis gave best fit with R2 of 92.3% and it indicated that farm size, hired labour used, quantity of herbicides and fertilizer used significantly influenced cassava output. For the efficiency analysis, farm size (ha), cost of factor input and chemicals (fertilizers and herbicides) used per hectares were the major determinants of farm level efficiency among the cassava farm households in the study area.

This paper presents change detection approach for synthetic aperture radar images based on log and mean ratio operators, image fusion and a novel fuzzy local information c means Clustering algorithm. The two multi-temporal SAR images are subjected to ratio operators. The log ratio operator is used to produce the difference image with enhanced low intensity pixels. The mean ratio operator suppresses the unchanged region and improves the homogeneity of the changed region. The difference image is then subjected to image fusion. To improve the intensity of the background pixels Wavelet based image fusion technique is used. The fused image is then subjected to a novel fuzzy algorithm which is Reformulated Fuzzy Local Information C Means Clustering Algorithm. Finally the total number of pixels varied from the difference image is calculated. The kappa and Percentage of correct classification values are more than other algorithms.

The purpose of this study was to characterize plantain banana cropping systems on peasant farms near Kisangani, DR Congo. In order to achieve the expected results, a survey based on a semi-structured questionnaire was done among 60 farmers and banana fields. In addition to the interview with the farmers, a direct observation was also made in the fields of plantain banana in order to complete the information obtained from the farmers. The results obtained indicate that agriculture is the main survival activity and plantain banana rest the priority crop that takes place mainly in primary or secondary forests. For majority of plantain banana farmers, the fields are burned and occupy from 2 to 3 ha. In terms of types of cropping, polyculture is largely used by the majority of plantain banana producers and the plantain-maize, plantain-cassava and plantain-rice are the most frequent intercropping in the area. Compared to the field duration of plantain banana, the maximum time is 5 years and the techniques adopted by the farmers to maintain the plantain are regular maintenance of the field and destruction of diseased or attacked plants, maintenance of certain standing trees and accumulation of plant debris around the tuft.

In the present paper, chemical reaction effect on MHD flow in porous media past an impulsively started oscillating vertical plate with variable mass diffusion and constant wall temperature in the presence of Hall current is studied here. The fluid considered is an electrically conducting. The Laplace transform technique has been used to find the solutions for the velocity, Sherwood number and skin friction. The velocity profile, heat transfer and mass diffusion have been studied for different parameters like Schmidt number, Hall parameter, magnetic parameter, chemical reaction parameter, mass Grashof number, thermal Grashof number, Prandtl number, and time. The effect of various parameters are shown graphically and the value of the skin-friction and Sherwood number for different parameters has been tabulated.

The child is a gift given to each couple. Their growth process from children to adults plays an important role in shaping their personal qualities and behaviors. This reading is carried out in order to determine how the nature of the child is formed from a baby. This study emphasizes the child's development from the angle of cognitive and personality.

Heavy metals concentration was studied in tilapia fishes (Oreochromis niloticus) from New Calabar river (Station 1), Elechi creek (Station 2), Woji creek (Station 3) in Port Harcourt, Nigeria using Atomic spectrophotometer. From the results obtained, Zinc showed concentration of 8.38mg/kg, 7.31mg/kg and 9.32mg/kg in the three stations respectively which do not exceed the WHO regulatory limit of 30.0mg/kg. Nickel concentration in the tilapia fish in Station I (0.55mg/kg), exceeded the regulatory limit of 0.5mg/kg, while fishes from Station II and III had 0.43mg/kg and 0.37mg/kg respectively. Cadmium and Chromium were not detected in the fish from three different Stations. Iron was highest with concentration of 54.17mg/kg, 50.10mg/kg, and 35.30mg/kg in the different stations respectively and were lower than WHO regulatory limit of 100.0 mg/kg .Lead showed the lowest concentration of heavy metals in the different stations and were also lower than the WHO regulatory limit of 5.0mg/kg. There was high concentration of (Iron) Fe in the fish species from the three stations while high concentration of Nickel was also observed from species from Station I. Following the high concentrations of metals in these stations, it’s imperative therefore that adequate measures should be put in place to reduce activities related to heavy metal contamination to avoid futuristic adverse effects. Finally, Oreochromis niloticus may perhaps be a good indicator to monitor heavy metal contamination in the waterbody.

This study was to compare the effect of maggot meal and coppens feed on the growth and survival rate of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fingerlings. The feeding trial lasted for 85 days with 135 specimens of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fingerlings of average initial weight of 1.33g, fed with 5% of their total body weight twice daily with maggot meal, coppens feed and a combination of maggot meal and coppens feed. The study was completely randomized and had three treatments and three replicates in the ratio (50:50). The result for growth showed mean final weight of 24.12g, 21.92g, 22.89g for maggot meal, coppens feed and control diet respectively. Mean weight gains of 22.77g, 20.59g and 21.57g for maggot meal, coppens feed and control diet, was not statistically significant at P<0.05. it also showed that there was an increase in length of fish from a mean initial length of 5.49cm, 5.32cm 5.37cm for maggot meal, coppens feed and control diet to a final length of 17.5cm, 16.13cm and 16.21cm for maggot meal, coppens feed and control diet, mean length gains of 12.01cm, 10.80cm and 10.84cm for maggot meal, coppens feed and control diet respectively, was not statistically significant at P<0.05. The mean specific growth rate (SGR) was 3.39, 3.28 and 3.33 for maggot meal, coppens feed and control diet respectively but not statistically significant at P<0.05. The feed intake was 46.57g, 43.91g and 44.96g for maggot meal, coppens feed and control diet respectively was not statistically significant at P<0.05. The feed conversion ratio 0.51, 0.52 and 0.52 for maggot meal, coppens feed and control respectively was not statistically significant at P<0.05. The result further showed that maggot meal performed better than coppens feed but not statistically different at P<0.05. This shows that maggot meal can replace coppens feed in the culture of the African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fingerlings. Therefore, farmers are encouraged to grow maggots in large quantity so far it can be used to culture Clarias gariepinus.