Assessment of Noise Exposure of Sawmill Workers in Southwest,Nigeria

Economic wood processing employs the use of industrial machines for cutting, shaping, milling, and sawing timber, thereby leading to the generation of high levels of noise. Published data from empirical studies have categorized noise as an environmental hazard of global significance. Furthermore, noise exposure limits for different industries and all the industrial machines available has not been formally established as it presently exists in developed nations around the world. Therefore, this study assessed the daily exposure of sawmills workers to noise in Southwestern Nigeria. Reconnaissance surveys were first carried out in Osun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, Lagos, and Ogun States to select sawmills that were fully operational and fit for the study. Two fully functional sawmills in two cities of each State were eventually selected for data collection, making a total of 24 sawmills, while the Circular Machines (CM), Planer Machines (PM), and Band-saw Machines (BM) were the machines in each sawmill considered. Two machines each of CM, PM, and BM were considered in each sawmill, making a total of forty-eight (48) machines each of CM, PM, and BM. Sound data were collected between 7 am and 7 pm each day for six days (between Monday and Saturday) using Extech 407732 sound level meter and all stabilized measurements were taken three times at different intervals. The data collected were in three different periods: Machine No-work Period (NP_m), Machine Idle Period (IP_m), and Machine Working Period (WP_m). A two–way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was carried out at P < 0.05 to determine whether there is a significant difference in the sound level average before and after the break, for both the idle and working periods of the three machines considered. This was also done to determine whether there is a significant difference between the sound level average of the results collected during idle and working periods of the three machines. Noise Pollution Levels (L_np) ranged from 83.20 dB (PM) to 107.65 (BM) and 93.42 (CM and PM) – 116.00 (BM) respectively, while IP_m also gave the least noise pollution level of 95.79 dB and WP_m gave the highest level of 102.88 dB. The results revealed that all the machines’ L_np values in the working period are more than the 90 dB acceptable limit the recommendation value of 90 dB while 89.6% of CMs, 75% of PMs, and 89.6% of BM had their L_np above 90 dB in the idle period respectively. The minimum and the maximum noise dose levels for IP_m, WP_m and overall are 0.09 (BM) and 2.37 (CM), 0.50 (CM), and 4.77 (PM) and 0.69 (BM) and 6.64 (PM) respectively. The study found out that the fundamental contributing factors to the high noise levels in sawmills are poor machine maintenance, use of old and obsolete machines, poor housekeeping strategy, limited space, workers’ negligence, lack of PPE, and lack of occupational safety training. The study recommends that proper workplace practices such as use of personal protective equipment, new and modern machines, training, and occupational safety programmes be implemented in the considered sawmills.     

Chemotactic Micro‐ and Nanodevices

Preparation of autonomous chemotactic micro‐ and nanomachines represents one of the most difficult challenges of modern materials science. To construct a device mimicking the behavior of many microorganisms, which evolved their chemotactic abilities during the millennia of evolution, places extreme demands on the imagination and abilities of researchers. However, with the chemotactic devices in hand, many novel and interesting applications of micromachines could be implemented. The introduction of an autonomous navigation, independent of the external control with electric, magnetic, or electromagnetic field is crucial for applications in environmental remediation and might be advantageous in medical applications. This Minireview summarizes the development in the field of chemotactic micro‐ and nanomachines, describes the trends in their construction, and compares the different approaches to their construction considering the areas of possible application of the devices.     

“多才多艺”的铁元素*

铁在自然界中含量丰富,化学性质活泼,能够形成多种应用广泛的物质及材料,富有发展潜力。简述了铁元素的发现与性质,并重点介绍了铁的功能与应用。其中铁的应用主要围绕铁及其化合物在医学治疗、能源材料和环境保护领域所发挥的重要作用进行了阐述。     

环境规制强度影响能源效率的门槛效应研究——基于PSTR模型

利用非径向-SBM和CCR模型测算了我国30个省市(暂不包括西藏和港澳台地区)2007-2016年间的环境规制强度以及能源效率,构建面板平滑转移回归模型(PSTR),分析了环境规制强度对我国能源效率的连续非线性变化的影响.研究结果显示,全国环境规制强度对我国能源效率存在非线性效应,二者之间呈倒“U”型关系.环境规制强度小于门槛值0.6376时,环境规制对能源效率产生创新补偿效应,当环境规制强度高于门槛值0.6376时,环境规制对能源效率产生遵循成本效应.而我国东西部地区的环境规制强度与地区能源效率间却存在着与之相反的“U”型效应.     

Weak solution of the merged mathematical equations of the polluted atmosphere

Considered as a geophysical fluid, the polluted atmosphere shares the shallow domain characteristics with other natural large-scale fluids such as seas and oceans. This means that its domain is excessively greater horizontally than in the vertical dimension, leading to the classic hydrostatic approximation of the Navier–Stokes equations. In the past there has been proved a convergence theorem for this model with respect to the ocean, without considering pollution effects. The novelty of this present work is to provide a generalization of their result translated to the atmosphere, extending the fluid velocity equations with an additional convection–diffusion equation representing pollutants in the atmosphere.     

利用反射太赫兹时域强度分布定量检测沙粒中的微量原油

原油污染是海洋生物和环境安全的主要威胁之一,检测近海沙粒中的微量原油对于环境保护和原油勘探有着重要意义.本文采用反射式太赫兹时域波形对近海沙粒中的原油进行定量检测,详细地分析了延迟时间与沙粒中的原油浓度的关系.结果表明,原油浓度与延迟时间呈线性递减关系,反射式太赫兹时域波形是一种具有潜力的污染定量检测方法.     

In vivo comprehensive multiphase NMR

Traditionally, due to different hardware requirements, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has developed as two separate fields: one dealing with solids, and one with solutions. Comprehensive multiphase (CMP) NMR combines all electronics and hardware (magic angle spinning [MAS], gradients, high power Radio Frequency (RF) handling, lock, susceptibility matching) into a universal probe that permits a comprehensive study of all phases (i.e., liquid, gel-like, semisolid, and solid), in intact samples. When applied in vivo, it provides unique insight into the wide array of bonds in a living system from the most mobile liquids (blood, fluids) through gels (muscle, tissues) to the most rigid (exoskeleton, shell). In this tutorial, the practical aspects of in vivo CMP NMR are discussed including: handling the organisms, rotor preparation, sample spinning, water suppression, editing experiments, and finishes with a brief look at the potential of other heteronuclei (²H, ¹⁵N, ¹⁹F, ³¹P) for in vivo research. The tutorial is aimed as a general resource for researchers interested in developing and applying MAS-based approaches to living organisms. Although the focus here is CMP NMR, many of the approaches can be adapted (or directly applied) using conventional high-resolution magic angle spinning, and in some cases, even standard solid-state NMR probes.     

熵的一种通俗教法

熵如力、能量和动量一样是物理学中一个重要概念,若能用一种通俗易懂的方法设计熵的教学,对文科物理的教学有重要意义.为此本文提出了一种通俗的熵的教法,这一教法不需要学生学习热力学第二定律也可以建立熵的概念.具体教学设计如下:通过日常生活例子引入熵的概念(也就是玻尔兹曼熵),设计两个例子让学生会计算熵,通过具体问题的讨论让学生充分理解熵的意义,通过一个实例由玻尔兹曼熵引入克劳修斯熵公式,设计一个演示实验强化教学效果,将熵与环境保护联系起来融入人文情怀,最后还强调了熵计算的不同层次.教学设计完全采用基于问题学习(PBL)的教学模式.     

A multiperiod model for estimating the cost of deposit insurance under the Basel III minimum capital requirement

Under the Basel III regime, a commercial bank is considered adequately capitalized if it maintains a ratio of capital to total risk-weighted assets or capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of at least 8%. We model a commercial bank that complies with Basel III's minimum capital requirement on an interval $[0,T]$ for $T>0$. The bank model is achieved via a specific rate of capital influx that fixes the bank's CAR at the minimum prescribed level of 8%. On the basis of this capital influx rate, we derive models for the bank's asset portfolio and capital dynamics required for maintaining the CAR at the minimum prescribed level. For the aforementioned bank, we further study a deposit insurance (DI) pricing problem with a coverage horizon equal to $T$ years. More specifically, we employ a multiperiod DI pricing model to approximate the cost of DI for the bank on the interval $[0,T]$, where the constant (minimum) CAR is maintained. We study the behaviours of the models leading to the constant (minimum) CAR, and the behaviour of the DI premium estimate by means of numerical simulations. In the simulation study pertaining to the DI premium estimate specifically, we determine the effects of changes in the bank's initial leverage level (deposit-to-asset ratio), the DI coverage horizon, and the volatility of the asset portfolio on the DI premium estimate.     

A Water-Stable Lanthanide Coordination Polymer as Multicenter Platform for Ratiometric Luminescent Sensing Antibiotics

As a hot topic of global concern, the distinguishing and detecting of antibiotic pollution is crucial owing to its adverse effect on ecosystems and human health stemming from excessive use and poor management. Herein, a water-stable lanthanide coordination polymer sensor (Dy-TCPB) with multiple emitting centers is prepared. The versatile Dy-TCPB can conveniently differentiate various antibiotics, and displays a self-calibration luminescent response to nitrofurazone (NFZ) and furazolidone (FZD). Each antibiotic exhibits notable correlation to a unique combination of the two ligand-to-Dy ion emission intensity ratios, enabling two-dimensional fingerprint recognition. Furthermore, the novel self-calibration sensor demonstrates effective recognition of NFZ and FZD with excellent sensitivity and selectivity, and detection limits as low as 0.0476 and 0.0482 μm for NFZ and FZD, respectively. The synthetic approach for the fabrication of a singular coordination polymer exhibiting multiple emissions provides a promising strategy for the development of facile and effective ratiometric sensors.