Controlled Formation of β-Si3N4 on Native Oxidized Silicon Wafers in Ammonia Flow

Crystallography Reports - The formation of β-Si3N4 for subsequent growth of AlGaN and GaN heterostructures of silicon wafers has been studied. It is established that the native oxide layer...     

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.     

Operator Interpolation and Systems of Linear Equations and Inequalities in Euclidean Spaces

Ukrainian Mathematical Journal - We establish new criteria of compatibility for a linear system of equations (equivalent to the Kronecker–Capelli theorem) or inequalities (equivalent to the...     

Complexes of Nitrilotriacetic Acid with Amines. Molecular Structures of 2-Ammonioethanol Nitrilotriacetate and Bis{2-Ammonio-2-(Hydroxymethyl)propane-1,3-Diol} Nitrilotriacetate

Crystallography Reports - Reactions of nitrilotriacetic acid with 2-aminoethanol, 2-amino-2-(hydroxymethyl)propane-1,3-diol, and 2,2'-(ethylenedioxy)bis(ethylamine) afford the following salts...     

污泥基吸附剂对亚甲基蓝和环丙沙星的吸附性能研究

亚甲基蓝和环丙沙星是水体中2种污染物, 对生态环境有潜在危害. 本文以市政剩余活性污泥为原料, 氯化锌为活化剂热解制备污泥基吸附剂, 研究盐酸酸洗浓度、氯化锌浓度、热解温度、热解时间等对污泥基吸附剂吸附水中亚甲基蓝和环丙沙星性能的影响. 结果表明 (1)污泥基吸附剂对亚甲基蓝的吸附性能随盐酸酸洗浓度的增大而增加, 对环丙沙星的吸附性能则随盐酸酸洗浓度的增大呈先降后增趋势, 两者均在1.500mol·L-1盐酸浓度下取得最优值. (2)污泥基吸附剂对亚甲基蓝和环丙沙星的吸附性能随氯化锌浓度和热解温度的增加呈先升后降趋势, 在氯化锌浓度为4.0mol·L-1、热解温度为500℃时有最优值; 随着热解时间的延长, 污泥基吸附剂对亚甲基蓝和环丙沙星的吸附性能分别在500℃热解70min和80min时有最优值. (3)污泥基吸附剂的最佳制备条件为 氯化锌4.0mol·L-1活化2h、500℃热解70min和80min、1.500mol·L-1盐酸酸洗; 以此制得的污泥基吸附剂对亚甲基蓝和环丙沙星的去除率分别为97.7%和96.4%, 平衡吸附量分别为97.9mg·g-1和3.9mg·g-1, 且污泥基吸附剂对亚甲基蓝和环丙沙星的吸附过程均符合准二级动力学方程.     

Modeling the motion of a bright spot in jets from black holes M87* and SgrA*

General Relativity and Gravitation - In previous work, we established theoretical results concerning the effect of matter shells surrounding a gravitational wave (GW) source, and we now apply these...     

Estimation of the Sorption Activity of Silver Nanoparticles on Biodegradable Fibers of Natural and Artificial Origin

Russian Physics Journal - The specific features of the sorption activity of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on biodegradable polymers of natural (collagen) and artificial (polyamide 6.6) origin have...     

Effect of External Factors on the Ferromagnetic Resonance Line Width in Exchange-Biased Structures

Physics of the Solid State - The external factors which influence the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) line width in bilayer (ferromagnet/antiferromagnet) exchange-biased systems are studied. The...     

Baer sums for a natural class of monoid extensions

Semigroup Forum - It is well known that the set of isomorphism classes of extensions of groups with abelian kernel is characterized by the second cohomology group. In this paper we generalise this...     

Small-Angle Neutron Scattering at the Pulsed Reactor IBR-2: Current Status and Prospects

Crystallography Reports - Neutron diffraction studies on the small-angle neutron spectrometer YuMO (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna), based on the IBR-2 pulsed reactor, have been...