Abstract: Every committed writer has as his/her responsibility to address the socio- political, economic and cultural concerns of his society. The Anglophone Cameroonian writer has done that in poetry, drama and prose. However, G.D. Nyamndi, besides his prose and dramatic works which are basically fiction that is based on facts, has decided to take Anglophone Cameroonian literature to another dimension, namely, the essay. The essayist’s approach is very scientific and empirical in the sense that he/she tends to behave like a scientist, and every word, phrase, clause or sentence that he/she uses is thoroughly scrutinized. Samuel Johnson says proper words in proper places. Using the new historicist critical theory to interpret, analyze and evaluate Nyamndi’s Whether Losing, Whether Winning: Musings in Political Realism, this paper reveals that Nyamndi in his essay has held his literary mirror closer to social reality than his fictional works. The paper concludes that the essay is the best instrument that can be used to gauge the socio-political and cultural climate of any society.

This study is an empirical investigation into the quantitative effect of credit risk management on the performance of Nigeria’s Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and Bank lending growth over the period of 17 years (1998- 2014). Secondary data for empirical analysis was obtained from CBN Statistical bulletin 2014 and World Bank (WDI) 2015. The study employed multiple linear regression model to analyze the time series data. The result showed that sound credit management strategies can boost investors and savers confidence in banks and lead to a growth in funds for loans and advances which leads to increased bank profitability.. The findings revealed that credit risk management has an insignificant impact on the growth of total loans and advances by Nigerian Deposit money banks. The study therefore recommends that DMBs in Nigeria should strictly adhere to their credit appraisal policies which ensures that only credit worthy borrowers have access to loanable funds. Banks are to ensure that funds are allocated to borrowers with decent to high credit ratings.

This paper analyses the changes of trade pattern for Malaysia’s exports by calculating reveal comparative advantage (RCA) indices over time. This study is based on 144 manufactures comparative advantage in the world and Vietnam market. It classifies 144 kinds of manufactures by technology level into five general groups and nine small groups, which cover the majority of Malaysia’s manufactured goods. This paper undertakes an analysis of the comparative advantage of Malaysia manufactured goods from 2010 to 2015. The results indicate that most of the products with comparative advantage in the world market are high technology products, particularly E&E products and process industries products. In term of Vietnam market, agriculture-based products and process industries are more dominance. However, Malaysia manufactured products competitiveness in Vietnam market have shifted from low technology products to medium technology products which indicates the same pattern with the world.

Five different soil rhizosphere samples were collected from the following medicinal plants: Heliotropium pterocarpum, Euphorbia cuneata, Dracaena ombet, Balanites aegyptiaca and Prosopis juliflra located in HalayebShalateen region, Egypt. Physico-chemical characterization of these soil was performed. Also, six microbial DNA extraction protocols (A-F) including hexadecylmethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and sodium docdeylsulfate (SDS)- based methods were compared for these soil. Moreover, Phospholipid Fatty Acid (PLFA) analysis was applied to characterize the microbial community structure of these samples. Consequently, this work provides rapid microbial DNA extraction and precipitation method and biodiversity evaluation of microbial community structure in the samples.

The study examines the impact of trade liberalization on manufacturing value-added in Nigeria between 1970 and 2014. Basically, the study employed the tools of quantitative empirical analysis technique to evaluate the impact of trade openness on the output of Nigerian manufacturing sector. Findings from the study reveal that the Nigerian economy has not changed its export structure over the 1970 - 2014 periods. The only changes that have taken place to its exports were just a mere shift in exported product indicating a sign of export substitution from primary agro industry-based exports to primary mining industry-based exports (i.e crude oil). It should be noted that heavy reliance of the Nigerian manufacturing firms on imported machinery and equipments is a reflection of the weak manufacturing base of the country .Also it can be adduced from the study that the inability of the Nigeria manufacturing sector to respond positively to the export potentials inherent in trade liberalization may be due to high cost of production in the country that put our manufacturing output in a disadvantageous position in international market. Generally, enough incentives for efficient resource allocation in order to promote manufactured exports within the on-going process of economic liberalization and deregulation paradigms have not been created. It was proposed that a mixture of the invisible hand of the market with the visible hand of the state should guide the process of manufacturing activities, economic diversification, trade and development similar to the case of the East Asian Tigers.

A fundamental tension exists today between the increasing willingness of States to participate in international efforts to protect fundamental human rights, and their desire to retain control over internal laws and procedures. The Refugee Convention provides international protection to individuals fleeing persecution in their countries of origin. This paper argues that the degrading and discriminating treatment of refugees with mental disabilities in certain countries constitutes the violation of the international protection. Furthermore, it argues that the language of the Refugee Convention and recent developments in case law relating to the scope of the "particular social group" category support the right of individuals with disabilities to seek international protection if they fear being persecuted on account of their particular mental disability. As a result, individuals who fear such treatment for reasons of their mental disability should be entitled to refugee protection. People with mental disabilities constitute a "social group," those who have a "wellfounded fear of persecution" on account of their mental disability should qualify for refugee status. In addition, I address the concerns of those in opposition to the granting of refugee protection to the mentally disabled. I argue that the numerous elements that an applicant must establish in order to be granted refugee status prevents the granting of protection to those who do not genuinely face a "well-founded fear of persecution."

The Marshall-Lerner hypothesis states that a nominal devaluation of exchange rate improves the trade balance. But the empirical evidence from Nigeria over the years has been inconsistent and inconclusive with regards to MarshallLerner conditions. Therefore, this study adopts multivariate regression model to ascertain the effects of devaluation of domestic currency on balance of payment of the Nigerian economy as in line with the arguments of the Marshall-Learn (ML) condition. To measure the effect of exchange rate devaluation on the Nigerian balance of payments, exchange rate, trade openness and foreign direct investment were used as the independent variables (exogenous) while balance of payment was used as the dependent variable (endogenous). The result revealed that, a unit devaluation of exchange rate on the average will result to 2.28138 percentage decrease in balance of payment (BOP) through balance of trade mechanism. The study concluded that the Marshall-Lerner condition is not satisfied in the short run in Nigerian case within the time period reviewed, 1970- 2014.

Integrase (IN) is an important enzyme for the replication of the type-1 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV- 1), and an essential target for the development of anti-HIV drugs. The enzyme is currently targeted by first and secondgeneration inhibitors [raltegravir (RAL), elvitegravir (EVG) and dolutegravir (DTG)]. Of these, resistance to RAL and EVG are associated with three main pathways involving key mutations at positions N155H, Q148K/R/H, and Y143R/C within the IN gene. Although new resistance mutations appear to confer only low levels of cross-resistance to secondgeneration drugs (DTG), the Q148 pathway with numerous secondary mutations has the potential to significantly decrease susceptibility to all inhibitors of IN. In order to get insights into the development of IN resistance to first and second generation inhibitors using in silicoapproaches, in this study, one of the clinically essential mutant (MT)-Q148R of IN was modeled and docked with inhibitors. The MT model was built using the template and wild type (WT) 4E1M of HIV-1 integrase. Docking results indicate that in MT-Q148R the score was lower with respect to all inhibitors in comparison to the WT. In this study, the MT-Q148R of IN from HIV-1 displayed low affinity, this could be attributed to less number of interactions principally hydrogen and halogen bonds with the inhibitors (DTG, EVG and RAL), compared to the WT. Therefore, it can be suggested that the MT could not bind efficiently with inhibitors owing to its structural changes due to substitution to mediate its inhibitory activity and eventually leads to DTG, EVG and RAL resistance.

This paper examines the roles of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Voluntary Organizations for Professionals Evaluation (VOPEs) towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Nigeria. The paper identified the roles of the CSOs to include: providing support towards improved public transparency and accountability; creating awareness among government agencies and the general public about the SGDs; mobilizing private sector involvement; monitoring of projects under the SGDs; empowering the marginalized populations by giving voice to their concerns; and strengthening the fight against corruption. The paper identified the roles of the VOPEs to include: training, re-training and capacity of staff; creating adequate and credible data management system to aid planning, monitoring and evaluation; monitoring developmental projects to ensure accountability and standardization; organizing workshops for cross learning and experience sharing among practitioners; and supporting monitoring and evaluation ownership and utilization of evaluation results.

Researches on complex networks have been performed across several fields of science, including technical networks, information networks, biological networks and social networks. Researchers have discovered different types of characteristics for complex networks such as regular-coupled networks, random networks, small-world networks and scale-free networks. Application of such network properties to solve real network problems, however, is still at the infancy stage. In this study, some key characteristics of complex networks are critically evaluated, the current state of complex networks and the application of theories of complex network to real network design. In particular, inspired by the average-path-length property and clustering coefficient, they are employed to evaluate the theories. It will also identify some of the challenges in applying these theories to real networks.

In this study, Cooperative society empowerment was examined to ascertain its impact on rural women. The sources of the data used for this research were primary and secondary data. Out of a total of one thousand three hundred and eighty six (1386) indigenous women of Nimo community, Anambra state, Nigeria were given questionnaires to fill. Nine hundred and eighty eight (988) of the population answered, completed and returned the questionnaire. The descriptive method was used to analyze the data generated for the research. This was supported by tables showing questions, responses of Yes or No, percentages. The hypothesis was tested using goodness- of-fit, descriptive statistics and histogram of normal curve. From the findings, the researcher came to a final decision that Cooperative societies impacts significantly on the living standard of its beneficiaries in any of their empowerment pragrammes. This means that cooperative societies helps in community development and in alleviation of poverty in rural communities.

Throughout the world, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is changing the face of education. This paper is a report of a study that was carried out in the months of May and June 2016 on the availability of resources and facilities for ICT integration in the public primary school curriculum in Kitui County in Kenya. The research purpose and objective of the study was: To find out the availability of resources and facilities for ICT integration in the public primary school curriculum in Kitui County. This study was guided by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). It was informed by the pragmatic philosophy and the Mixed Method (MM) research approach. Data was collected from 388 public primary schools in Kitui County selected through stratified and simple random sampling methods. A total of 388 head teachers and 776 teachers participated in the study giving a total of 1114 respondents. The research instruments used were questionnaires for teachers, interview schedules for head teachers and observation checklists. The data collected was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings revealed that most of the schools were connected to electricity but lacked ICT resources such as desk computers, whiteboards, CD-ROMs and anti-viruses. Laptops were available in some of the schools but were not being used by teachers in direct instruction. They were mainly used in the storage of school records, teacher plans, examination questions and for examination registration exercises. Another finding was lack of internet connectivity in most of the schools that affected ICT integration in the curriculum. The study recommended that the education stakeholders and the government should partner in provision of ICT resources and facilities to facilitate integration of ICT in schools. It is hoped that this study will be useful in education policy making on ICT integration in schools in Kenya and other parts of the world.

It is common in the intensive care unit to have many syringe pumps connected to a stopcock manifold and then attached to the port of a central line. The treatment of such critical patients also involves the alteration of flow rates of these syringe pumps. There are varied practices with respect to how the syringe pumps are placed when connected to the central line. Three syringe pumps containing inert fluid with a prefixed amount of different measurable electrolytes were connected to a central line via stopcock manifold .These pumps were commenced at a predetermined flow rate .At the end of prefixed intervals the samples were analysed to assess the quantity of electrolytes in the fluid delivered at the end of a central line. Alteration in flow rates and their subsequent end effect was studied. Further an infusion pump was connected to the distal end of the manifold and the fluid mechanics with various permutations of flow rate were studied. As per the results of our study, when a carrier infusion pump was connected in series to multiple syringe pumps connected to the manifold , the initial 5 minutes showed a significant dilutional effect for the contents of the proximal infusion pump (closest to the central line port)when alteration were made to the other pumps. This laboratory experiment does seem to suggest that there seems to be a significant dilutional effect with the use of carrier infusion in series as compared to when the carrier infusion is not used when drug alterations are done . This study further lays an impetus to study the above experiment in vivo in order to ascertain whether this has biological relevance.

Gram negative bacteria (GNB) is the most common causative agent for morbidities and mortalities in leukemic patient, because of their receiving immunosuprresive chemotherapeutic agents, aggressive devices like catheters used for giving them those treatments and Hospitalization, in addition to GNB increasing resistance to many of antibiotics. The study include isolation of GNB from blood samples of leukemia patients and identification of GNB species isolated from those samples then testing its susceptibility to 15 antibiotics, moreover, calculating Procalcitonin (PCT) concentration in the samples as immunological marker to detect bacteremia in those patients. The results show presence of 9 GNB species in blood samples of leukemia patients including: Enterobacter cloacae, E. sakazakii, Serratia marcescens, S. ficaria, S. liquifaciens, S. rubideae, S. odorefera, Klebsiella oxytoca, and Pseudomonas fluorescens. The most common species was E. cloacae followed by E. sakazakii. The higher effective antibiotics were Ciprofloxacin, Gentamicin and Amikacin; also PCT concentrations were ranged between (0.1 and 8.23) ng.ml-1. The study concluded that Gram negative bacteremia was common causative agent for infections in Leukemia Patients, Enterobacteriacae was the the most common GNB causing infection, and the Most effective antibiotic for it were Ciprofloxacin, Gentamicin, and Amikacin which can be used as prophylactic therapies for those infections.

Obesity is a noticeable public health problem worldwide. It is well known that obesity affects physical health and cognitive function. It impairs all domains of cognitive function. Moreover, obesity affects both metabolic activity and cerebral structure of the brain. Bariatric surgery is surgical procedures that help patients with extreme obesity to lose weight. Multiple domains of cognitive function improve 24 to 36 months after bariatric surgery. Mechanism of such improvement is still questionable. It may be related to improvement of underlying medical condition, improved glucose regulation and insulin sensitivity, or correction of leptin and ghrelin systems. In this article, we review the effect of bariatric surgery on cognitive function and its possible mechanism.