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.     

The Fifty Percent Machines—A Short History of Influence Machines and an Elementary Theory of Their Efficiency: An Attempt

Presenting the devices invented by Toepler, Holtz, Wimshurst, and Wommelsdorf, the history of the influence machines, the progress made, and the remaining deficits are discussed. The theoretical considerations published in the literature lack generalizable statements on the efficiency. Based on R. W. Pohl's model (1927), an elementary analysis is made, with the result that the upper limit of the theoretically achievable efficiency of influence machines is only 50%.     

对称向量拟均衡问题有效解的存在性

利用标量化方法建立对称向量拟均衡问题有效解的存在性定理。作为标量化方法的应用，利用这一方法得到向量变分不等式和拟向量变分不等式有效解的存在性定理。     

A Molecular Cable Car for Transmembrane Ion Transport

The controlled transport of molecular and ionic substrates across bilayer membranes is a fundamental task for the operation of living organisms. It is also a highly fascinating and demanding challenge for artificial molecular machines. The recent report of a synthetic transmembrane molecular shuttle that can transport potassium ions selectively down a gradient in a liposomal system makes a small but significant step towards this goal.     

In Situ Generated Gold Nanoparticles on Active Carbon as Reusable Highly Efficient Catalysts for a C −C Stille Coupling

Gold nanoparticle catalysts are important in many industrial production processes. Nevertheless, for traditional C ?C cross‐coupling reactions they have been rarely used and Pd catalysts usually give a superior performance. Herein we report that in situ formed gold metal nanoparticles are highly active catalysts for the cross coupling of allylstannanes and activated alkylbromides to form C ?C bonds. Turnover numbers up to 29 000 could be achieved in the presence of active carbon as solid support, which allowed for convenient catalyst recovery and reuse. The present study is a rare case where a gold metal catalyst is superior to Pd catalysts in a cross‐coupling reaction of an organic halide and an organometallic reagent.     

基于相移偏折法的高反射表面面形测量技术

利用单相机所采集的图像实现了对光滑高反射表面面形的直接检测.首先利用相机获取参考平面在标准平面镜中的镜像,然后通过参考平面上的点与归一化成像平面上图像点之间的密集折返对应关系,求得待测镜面的深度距离,从而实现对高反射表面面形的测量.通过光线追迹将该测量过程转化为求解物空间中关于两对应光线束之间的相交问题.以相位为载体获取面形梯度分布,求得该表面的法向量场,并求解相应的反射光线束.通过光线追迹对该光线束与相应入射光线束求“交点”检测高反射表面.对标准平面镜进行实验检测,测量得到的面形平面度为0.19 mm.采用传统方法与本文所提方法对汽车后视镜进行检测,所得检测结果对应点之间的平均距离为0.15 mm,验证了本文方法检测镜面面形的有效性.     

超音速等离子体炬的磁流体动力学数值研究

针对设计的喉径2mm、工作电流为100A的拉瓦尔喷嘴,在二维轴对称模型的基础上,对超音速等离子体炬中的流动及其外部射流进行了数值模拟。通过在阳极喷嘴内部采用基于磁矢量势的磁流体动力学模型,避免了对磁感应强度的复杂积分计算,得到了喷嘴内部多场耦合的结果及外部射流的流动状态,分析了喷嘴内部电磁场对等离子体的加速作用及射流发展过程。结果显示,等离子体经历了亚音速→跨音速→超音速的发展过程,最终获得2.3 Ma的超音速射流。研究结果为超音速等离子体炬的工业应用提供了理论基础。     

基于计算机视觉技术的茶叶品质随机森林感官评价方法研究

为弥补茶叶品质感官审评存在的缺陷，利用计算机视觉技术对茶叶品质进行快速无损评价研究。以碧螺春绿茶为对象，依据专家感官审评结果，将茶样分成4个等级；采用中值滤波及拉普拉斯算子对茶样图像进行预处理，并提取预处理后的茶样图像的颜色特征和纹理特征以表征茶叶图像的外形特征，利用随机森林算法对茶叶外形特征属性进行重要性排序；筛选出重要性较大的特征及随机森林算法中最优的决策树棵数建立感官评价模型，并与建立的支持向量机(SVM)模型性能相比较。结果表明：色调均值、色调标准差、绿体均值、平均灰度级、饱和度均值、红体均值、饱和度标准差、亮度均值、一致性等9个特征属性的重要性较大，且与感官审评特征描述结果相一致；当采用优选出的9个重要性较大的特征及决策数棵数为500时，建立的模型性能最优，模型总体判别率为95.75%，Kappa系数为0.933，OOB误差为5%，较SVM模型分别提高了3.5%，0.066，优选的9个重要性较大的图像特征与感官审评特征描述相一致。研究表明：利用随机森林方法筛选出对茶叶外形特征属性贡献最大的少数几个特征建立模型，模型性能就能达到很好的识别效果，模型得到简化，同时模型精度和稳定性都高于其他方法。