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.     

Long-Range Lateral Correlation between Self-Assembled Domains of Fluorocarbon-Hydrocarbon Tetrablocks by Quantitative GISAXS

The structure and lateral correlation of fluorocarbon-hydrocarbon tetrablock di(F10Hm) domains at the air/water interface have been determined by quantitative analysis of grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) data. The measured GISAXS signals can be well represented by the full calculation of the form and structure factors. The form factor suggests that di(F10Hm) domains take a hemiellipsoid shape. Both major and minor axes of the hemiellipsoids monotonically increased in response to the elongation of the hydrocarbon blocks, which can be explained by the concominant increase in van der Waals interaction. The structure factor calculated from the GISAXS signals suggests that the domains take an orthorhombic lattice. Remarkably, the lateral correlation can reach over a distance that is more than 14 times longer than the distance to the nearest neighbors. Our data suggest that quantitative GISAXS enables the optimal design of mesoscopic self-assemblies at the air/water interface by fine-tuning of the structures of molecular building blocks.     

微波瑞利散射法测定空气电火花激波等离子体射流的时变电子密度

大气压空气电火花激波等离子体射流的电子密度在亚微秒时间尺度上瞬变,其电子密度的测定很难.基于微波瑞利散射原理,本文测量了空气电火花冲击波流注放电等离子体射流的时变电子密度.实验结果表明:测量系统的标定参数A为1.04 × 105 V·Ω·m–2;空气流注放电等离子体射流的电子密度与等离子体射流的半径和长度有关,结合高速放电影像展示的等离子体射流的等效半径和等效长度,测定的电子密度在1020 m–3的量级,且随时间先快速增长至峰值再成指数衰减.此外,本文还探讨了等离子体射流的不同等效尺度对测定结果的影响;分析结果表明,采用时变等效半径和时变等效长度的计算结果最有效,且第1个快速波峰是由光电离的电离波导致的.     

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.     

气体压强对纳秒激光诱导空气等离子体特性的影响

环境气体的压强对激光诱导等离子体特性有重要影响.基于发射光谱法开展了气体压强对纳秒激光诱导空气等离子体特性影响的研究,探讨了气体压强对空气等离子体发射光谱强度、电子温度和电子密度的影响.实验结果表明,在10-100 kPa空气压强条件下,空气等离子体发射光谱中的线状光谱和连续光谱依赖于气体压强变化,且原子谱线和离子谱线强度随气体压强的变化有明显差别.随着空气压强增大,激光击穿作用区域的空气密度增加,造成激光诱导击穿空气几率升高,从而等离子体辐射光谱强度增大.空气等离子体膨胀区域空气的约束作用,增加了等离子体内粒子间的碰撞几率以及能量交换几率,并且使离子-电子-原子的三体复合几率增加,因此造成原子谱线OⅠ777.2 nm与NⅠ821.6 nm谱线强度随着气体压强增大而增大,在80 kPa时谱线强度最高,随后谱线强度缓慢降低.而离子谱线N Ⅱ 500.5 nm谱线强度在40 kPa时达到最大值,气体压强大于40 kPa后,谱线强度随压强增加而逐渐降低.空气等离子体电子密度均随压强升高而增大,在80 kPa后增长速度变缓.等离子体电子温度在30 kPa时达到最大值,气体压强大于30 kPa后,等离子体电子温度逐渐降低.研究结果可为不同海拔高度的激光诱导空气等离子体特性的研究提供重要实验基础,为今后激光大气传输、大气组成分析提供重要的技术支持.     

A sensitive and efficient method for trace analysis of some phenolic compounds using simultaneous derivatization and air‐assisted liquid–liquid microextraction from human urine and plasma samples followed by gas chromatography–nitrogen phosphorous detection

In present study, a simultaneous derivatization and air‐assisted liquid–liquid microextraction method combined with gas chromatography–nitrogen phosphorous detection has been developed for the determination of some phenolic compounds in biological samples. The analytes are derivatized and extracted simultaneously by a fast reaction with 1‐flouro‐2,4‐dinitrobenzene under mild conditions. Under optimal conditions low limits of detection in the range of 0.05–0.34 ng mL^?1 are achievable. The obtained extraction recoveries are between 84 and 97% and the relative standard deviations are less than 7.2% for intraday (n = 6) and interday (n = 4) precisions. The proposed method was demonstrated to be a simple and efficient method for the analysis of phenols in biological samples. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.