Tattoo and Body Piercings among Young Adults in Nigeria

Objective: Both tattoo and body piercing have a long history and are well known in various cultures in African, American, Asia, and Oceania. Although the appearance of the two varies geographically, they always possess a specific meaning for a particular culture. This study examined awareness, attitude, and knowledge of students towards tattooing and body piercing in Delta State University, Abraka. Nigeria.Material and Methods: Data was collected through the use of well-structured questionnaires. The study made use of 400 young adults randomly selected from six faculties in Delta State University, Abraka.Result and Discussion: Findings revealed that the majority of students (85%) are aware of tattoo and body piercing and 31.3% gave fashion as the main reason why they engage in body modifications. It was however observed that 40% of the subjects under survey regard their colleagues involved in tattooing and body piercing as irresponsible and reckless.Conclusion: The study gave a growing convergence on both gender toward tattooing and a sharp difference in the involvement of both gender towards body piercing. Majority of these young adult are also aware of the health risks associated with body modifications and may not consider them in future.International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Vol. 06 No. 01 January’22 Page: 24-29

Modelling of COVID-19 pandemic vis-a-vis some socioeconomic factors

The impacts of COVID-19 outbreak on socio-economic status of countries across the globe cannot be overemphasized as we examine the role it played in various countries. A lot of people were out of jobs, many households were careful of their spending and a greater social fracture of the population in fourteen different countries has emerged. We considered periods of infection spread during the first and second wave in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and countries in Africa, that is developed and developing countries alongside their social-economic data. We established a mathematical and statistical relationship between Theil and Gini index, then we studied the relationship between the data from epidemiology and socio-economic determinants using several machine learning and deep learning methods. High correlations were observed between some of the socio-economic and epidemiologic parameters and we predicted three of the socio-economic variables in order to validate our results. These result shows a sharp difference between the first and second wave of the pandemic confirming the real dynamics of the spread of the outbreak in several countries and ways by which it was mitigated.

The Influence of Battery Acid on the Destruction of Acrylic Coatings of Car Bodies

Renovation coatings of car bodies undergo destruction under the influence of operational factors. Like ultraviolet radiation, erosion, and aggressive media (among others, battery acid). This article concerns the evaluation of the influence of battery acid on the destruction of acrylic coatings previously non-aged, as well as aged climatically for 2 years. Ageing of the coatings with battery acid contributed to a degradation increase of their chemical structure. It was supported by a considerable increase in the polar component of surface free energy (SFE) of the coatings. In the case of prior climate ageing, the increase in the polar component was even higher. Moreover, the coating’s ability to absorb battery acid increased, which induced blistering. The DSC method revealed that the action of battery acid caused more intense oxidation of coating material, and as a result, the brittleness increased, leading to chipping of the coating surface layers. This led to the increase in surface roughness, measured using an interferometric method. The coatings previously climatically aged for 2 years presented higher values of surface roughness parameters than the non-aged ones. The increase in the surface roughness contributed to a substantial decrease in the gloss of coatings. A sharp difference in colour escalating with the lengthening of the ageing period was also observed using the spectrophotometric method.

Kargopol ceramics: a separate type or a variety of pit-comb ceramics (on the example of materials from the settlements of Karelia)?

The purpose of this study is to consider the phenomenon of Kargopol ceramics in Karelia, which is manifested in its bright originality, sharp difference from other types of Neolithic ware and the vastness of the area-from Lake Onega in the west to the Pechora River in the east and from the Southern White Sea in the north to the southern limits of the Vologda Region in the south. There are 20 known settlements in Karelia, the complexes of which contain Kargopol ceramics with a total number of 275 vessels. The center of this layer of antiquities is Lake Vodlozero, located near the border of Karelia with the Arkhangelsk Region. Most Kargopol vessels have a straight flat-cut corolla with short and shallow notches applied from the outer and inner edges, below there is a horizontal belt of pits or punctures. There are six variants of ornamentation, three of which include elements of pit-comb and comb dishes. The authors think that the concentration of Kargopol vessels on the monuments of eastern Karelia, mainly in the complexes with pit-comb ceramics of the middle stage of development in the lake basin Vodlozera, and its almost complete absence in other areas of Karelia indicates the penetration of a similar ceramic tradition from the Eastern Prionezh Region, where it was first isolated. Based on the available modern data, it is still difficult to talk about the independent existence of Kargopol ceramics in the Neolithic of Karelia.

Information Structure in Languages of the Caucasus

This chapter discusses the expression of information structure in the three indigenous language families of the Caucasus with a focus on constituent order and particles. At the clause level, all three language families show a clear preference for SOV, are generally flexible, and also admit other orders. The major focus position is pre-verbal, but postverbal focus is also attested; adjacency to the verb is a violable constraint. At the phrasal level, there is a sharp difference between Northwest Caucasian, with its prenominal and postnominal modifiers alike, and Kartvelian and Nakh-Daghestanian languages, which employ postnominal modifiers only for emphasis, contrast, or focus. Languages from all three families make wide use of cleft and pseudo-cleft constructions that normally express constituent focus. Another commonality is the frequent use of enclitics and suffixes of different types for information-structuring purposes. Modal markers, interrogative markers, additive affixes, and markers with grammatical meaning are used as focus-sensitive particles and usually placed after the item they scope over or after the head of the phrase.

Grammatical and Syntactical Functions of Auxiliaries in English and Urdu

The current study investigates grammatical and syntactical functions of auxiliaries in Urdu and English to draw certain distinctions regarding the behavior, syntactic representation and semantic content auxiliaries add to the main verbs (Vs) through the X-bar theory as a theoretical framework within the minimalist program (MP). The data of the current research were collected from authentic sources (Urdu and English text books and grammars) to consider a diverse range of possible usage of Urdu and English auxiliaries. 200 sentences extracted from textbooks and grammars were analyzed grammatically in terms of morphology, and syntax (through tree-representation and their movement). The findings indicate sharp differences related to the syntactic position of auxiliaries in Urdu and English. In Urdu, auxiliaries always occupy their position after the main verbs in a sentence and their position is fixed and also have the ability to mark number (singular & plural) and gender (masculine & feminine). In contrast, English auxiliaries can only mark number. Another sharp difference is observed in the question formation process. In Urdu, unlike English, auxiliaries cannot be moved from its latent position towards the specifier position at the beginning of the sentence to construct question structures, because, if it happens, the sentence is considered ungrammatical which may result in the violation of MP. The findings of the study would prove helpful for understanding the semantic, grammatical and syntactical nature and behavior of auxiliaries comparatively in Urdu and English.

Anonymous Vs. Attributed: Cluster Analysis of Tolstovskiĭ Sbornik Texts and Its Interpretation in Terms of Cultural Heritage

In the article, the quantitative analysis revealed lexical and semantic dominants and markers that distinguish the medieval anthology texts from each other. To verify whether three anonymous homilies in the thirteenth-century Tolstovskiĭ Sbornik might be attributed to Cyril of Turov, the authors examined the statistical distance between anonymous and already attributed texts. Using the clustering method based on the ranks of the most frequent tokens and the corresponding ranks of other texts, they constructed dendrograms that showed the text grouping. This technique allowed demonstrating the statistical proximity of six Cyril of Turov’s texts, their contrast to seven Cyril of Jerusalem’s texts, and the formation of the third cluster from texts of other authors. Cluster analysis made it possible to identify in Cyril of Turov’s homilies several crucial thematic keys, as well as to establish such a feature of his preaching discourse as the widespread use of role deixis. The analysis confirmed the sharp difference between the anonymous Parable of Wisdom and Cyril of Turov’s homilies. Separate convergences of two anonymous sermons with Cyril of Turov’s homilies were discovered. However, the level of convergence in this case, as analysis has shown, contrasts sharply with the level of convergence among Cyril of Turov’s homilies. It suggests that the causes of individual convergences are not associated with one person’s authorship

Growth of Tilia cordata Mill. in Urban Forests

Tilia cordata Mill. is considered to be the main tree species resistant to urban conditions and it is widely used in the greening of cities. The aim of the study is to assess the patterns of growth and development of small-leaved linden plantations in the urban environment. The research is based on the method of sample areas where continuous enumeration survey has been carried out. The study of urban greening objects was conducted using the methods of landscape assessment and complete enumeration of trees in alley plantings. It was found that Tilia cordata Mill. grows in all districts and zones of the city of Ufa, occupying 34.4% of green areas. During this research it was found that artificially created alley plantings of Tilia cordata Mill. are more well-kept and have well-developed crowns which create a tree shade sometimes 8-10 meters wide (the average crown projection being 7 m). Since alley plantings have repeatedly been pruned, trees in this area are characterized by a large increase in diameter and strong height growth stagnation. Thus, when studying linden plantings of the same age, a sharp difference in the size and shape of trees was observed.