Nigerian English Usage in Literature: A Sociolinguistic Study of Wole Soyinka’s The Beautification of Area Boy

This paper examined the imbalances created by social situations and captured in the English language usage by the characters in Wole Soyinka’s The beatification of area boy. The play, set in the busy city of Lagos, is a theatrical typification of the Nigerian society that creates variety differentiation in language use. The sociolinguistic data for the analysis were extracted from the primary text. The findings indicate that, in the play, Soyinka succinctly displays characters as linguistic pointers to showcase the peculiarities in Nigerian English usage that differentiate the linguistic behaviours of Nigerians from other Englishes. The study reveals the categorisation of the ‘spoken’ varieties into Nigerian Pidgin, Incipient bilingual, Local colour variety and the Nigerian literary variety. These features which manifest at the phonological, semantic, lexical, syntactic and pragmatic levels altogether combine to represent the typical linguistic situation in a non-native speaker environment. The linguistic variations, when juxtaposed with sociolinguistic variables, explicitly express the domestic adaptations and modifications in English language usage suggestive of the playwright’s representation of the Nigerian multilingual society.

Investigating the Relationship between Perceived Meal Colour Variety and Food Intake across Meal Types in a Smartphone-Based Ecological Momentary Assessment

Although most people are aware of the health benefits of consuming sufficient amounts of fruit and vegetables, many do not adhere to current dietary recommendations. Recent studies have suggested meal colour variety as an intuitive cue for healthy and enjoyable lunch meal choices. The present study extends this research by testing the “colourful = healthy” association across meal types. Using smartphone-based Ecological Momentary Assessment, 110 participants recorded 2818 eating occasions over a period of eight days. For each eating occasion, a picture, a short written description of the meal, the meal type (breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, snack) and the perceived meal colour variety were recorded. Foods were classified into seven food groups based on the pictures and descriptions. Data were analysed using multilevel modelling. For all meal types except afternoon tea which did not include vegetables, perceived that meal colour variety was positively related to vegetable consumption (bs ≥ 0.001, ts ≥ 3.27, ps ≤ 0.002, quasi-R2s ≥ 0.06). Moreover, perceived meal colour variety was negatively associated with sweets consumption for breakfast, dinner and snacks (bs ≤ −0.001, ts ≤ −2.82, ps ≤ 0.006, quasi-R2s ≥ 0.01). The “colourful = healthy” association can be generalized across meal types and thus may be a promising strategy to promote a healthier diet.

Genome analysis of American minks reveals link of mutations in Ras-related protein-38 gene to Moyle brown coat phenotype

Over 35 fur colours have been described in American mink (Neovison vison), only six of which have been previously linked to specific genes. Moyle fur colour belongs to a wide group of brownish colours that are highly similar to each other, which complicates selection and breeding procedures. We performed whole genome sequencing for two American minks with Moyle (m/m) and Violet (a/a m/m /p/p) phenotypes. We identified two frame-shift mutations in the gene encoding Ras-related protein-38 (RAB38), which regulates the trafficking of tyrosinase-containing vesicles to maturing melanosomes. The results highlight the role of RAB38 in the biogenesis of melanosomes and melanin and the genetic mechanism contributing to hair colour variety and intensity. These data are also useful for tracking economically valuable fur traits in mink breeding programmes.

Factors Affecting Brand Preference of Scooters among Women Consumers in Kathmandu Valley

<p>The trend of using scooters nowadays is a key to support consumer daily movement; the increasing number of sales of scooters shows a good sign for vehicle industry. The main objective of the research is to identify and analyze the factors that leads to brand preference of a scooter and which among them led to purchase of scooters. The findings of the study are based on the primary survey of 200 users of different brands, conducted within Kathmandu Valley. Correlation test is applied to test the relationship between the factors and the customer satisfaction. It is found that majority of the respondents considered comfort, mileage and design as the top three important factors that influence brand preference of scooters. The bottom three factors are colour variety, resale value and size of fuel tank. Factors such as price, mileage, comfort level, colour variety, design, size of fuel tank and spare parts supply have significant role in the brand preference of scooters, which means a favorable change in these factor can lead to brand preference of the customers. Whereas, resale value and durability are factors which have no significant relationship with brand preference of scooters among women consumers. From the result obtained, it is recommended that scooter brands should focus in developing more comfortable scooters because research shows that comfort level is the major factor that affects brand preference of scooter. In a city like Kathmandu valley, customers prefer scooter which has higher mileage potential. Although resale value and durability are the least influencing factors still the scooter brands should not neglect these factors because though not so significant but still few customers would prefer such factors while purchasing a scooter. The scooter brands should also focus of providing excellent reach of spare parts supply as majority of the customers agree that they will not purchase a brand of scooter if its spare parts are not easily available.</p><p>Journal of Business and Social Sciences Research, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 185-200</p>

Multivariate Discrimination of Czech Autochthonous Horses

We have used a discriminant function analysis to compare morphology of five Czech autochthonous breeds (including two colour varieties as independent breeds) to test whether a small number of basic morphological variables (wither height, thoracic, nose and shin perimeter, length of head) can discriminate them. The breeds included Czech Warmblood, black and grey colour variety of the Old Kladruby horse, Czech-Moravian Belgian horse and Silesian Noriker. The tested individuals were assigned with overall 81.9% classification success to correct breed. The best classification result reached Czech Warmblood 95.7%, the black Old Kladruby horse 87.5% and Silesian Noriker, respectively, 85.7%. Czech-Moravian Belgian horse showed a poorer success of classification (60%). Discrimination analysis identified the most important variables related to their head (nose perimeter and length of the head). Based on discrimination model both colour varieties of the Old Kladruby horse clustered more closely. Similarly both cold-blooded breeds (Czech-Moravian Belgian and Silesian Noriker) grouped more together and locations of the Czech warmbloods were more apart from all others. Such result is in concordance with the origin history of these horses.

Horn colour varieties of the Hungarian Grey cattle

The Hungarian Grey Cattle breed is a ‘success-story’ of the national genetic conservation work. Traits of the breed have been subjects of several research projects, although many relationships remained unclear. Our present research results were meant to call attention to a less emphasized trait of the breed: the different horn colour varieties. Research work was carried out in the Hungarian Grey stock of the Hortobágy Non-profit Company for Nature Conservation and Gene Preservation. Ratio of the three main horn colour varieties (white, ‘cardy’, green) were determined in the observed female, male and steer stocks. Our results showed no significant differences (P<0,05) in the distribution of the horn colour varieties of the female and bull stocks, and of the female and steer stocks. We found that on the basis of the ratio of white colour, four sub-categories can be distinguished within the ‘cardy’ colour variety. Results of the statistical analysis (P<0,05) confirmed that the colour of the horn and the ratio of the black part on the horn tip are two different traits.