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Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) are naturally available in the environment; however, anthropogenic activities encourage their high concentration, posing environmental and human health risks. The ecotoxicological status, source apportionment and health risk assessment of PTEs (Iron (Fe), Nickel (Ni), Cadmium (Cd), Selenium (Se), Zinc (Zn), Lead (Pb), Chromium (Cr) and Copper (Cu)) in creeks (Fibiri and Iwoama) along Bonny River were examined through laboratory analysis (American Public Health Association standard), indicators and statistical techniques. The PTEs concentration of surface water and sediment for both creeks exceeded the WHO allowable limit, and the surface water trended as Cr > Pb > Fe > Ni > Cd > Zn > Cu > Se for Fibiri creeks, Fe > Cr > Pb > Ni > Cd > Zn > Cu > Se for Iwoama creek while the sediment trended as Fe > Pb > Ni > Cr > Zn > Cd > Cu > Se for both creeks. The contamination factor (CF) of the creek’s sediment showed low CF (Zn and Cu), moderate CF (Ni, Pb and Cr) and very high CF (Fe and Cd), while risk index status ranged from low risk (Ni, Zn, Pb, Cr and Cu), moderate risk (Fe) and significantly high risk (Cd). The human health risk revealed that children could be exposed to potential non-carcinogenic effect (HI > 1) with Zn (1.64 and 2.03), and the Total Carcinogenic Risk (TCR) for children indicated high carcinogenic risk (TCR > 1 × 10−4) for Ni, Pb, Cr and Cd of the creeks’ environmental mediums. The similarity in the trend and status of the creeks suggested that both environments are exposed to similar anthropogenic activities impact.

Analytical tools used in infrastructure asset management of urban water pipe networks are reliant on asset data. Traditionally, data required by analytical tools has not been collected by most water utilities because it has not been needed. The data that is collected might be characterised by low availability, integrity and consistency. A process is required to support water utilities in assessing the accuracy and completeness of their current data management approach and defining improvement pathways in relation to their objectives. This study proposes a framework to enable increased data-driven asset management in pipe networks. The theoretical basis of the framework was a literature review of data management for pipe network asset management and its link to the coherence of set objectives. A survey to identify the current state of data management practice and challenges of asset management implementation in five Swedish water utilities and three focus group workshops with the same utilities was carried out. The main findings of this research were that the quality of pipe network datasets and lack of interoperability between asset management tools are drivers for creating data silos between asset management levels, which may hinder the implementation of data-driven asset management. Furthermore, these findings formed the basis for the proposed conceptual framework. The suggested framework aims to support the selection, development and adoption of improvement pathways to enable increased data-driven asset management in municipal pipe networks. Results from a preliminary application of the proposed framework are also presented. HIGHLIGHTS A link between data quality and interoperability relative to the data management approach and data silos between IAM levels was established.; A conceptual framework is proposed to assess the state of data management relative to data-driven IAM.; A preliminary application of the framework to sewer blockage data and IAM tools in one municipality showed low interoperability with medium data quality, i.e. intuitive IAM.;

Microscale sensors provide critical solutions in diverse fields, ranging from measurement, automation, and control in industrial, agricultural, and biomedical applications. However, their development is limited by many requirements and challenges, such as efficient powering and the selection of suitable wireless communication technologies. A number of wireless communication technologies have been deployed in these sensors, including terahertz (Thz) radio frequency and ultrasound. Designing sensors in micro-scale imposes challenges for any communication technique deployed. This paper investigates the use of magnetic induction-based backscatter communication in a microscale sensor. The aim here is to provide both physical and media access control (MAC) layer design analysis for a microscale mote that is powered inductively and communicates with a reader using backscattering. Magnetic induction-based communication and powering are demonstrated via analysis and simulation for the mote. Then, low-power modulation, error-correction coding, and suitable low-power MAC schemes with evidence of feasible implementation in microscale are explored. Results of the performance analysis indicate that the proposed design achieves communication at a range of at least a few centimeters (5-6 cm) with an acceptable bit error rate (BER). Finally, MAC layer analysis reveals the optimum number of motes to be deployed for various read delays and transmission rates.

Machine learning algorithms (MLAs) have recently been applied to predict gene mutations of Escherichia coli (E. coli) under different exposure conditions, with room for improvement in performance. In a bid to improve performance, we hypothesize that incorporating the interactions between genes will help MLAs make better predictions. To investigate this, we integrated protein-coding gene cofunctional networks into a mutation dataset of E. coli exposed to different conditions. Also, we proposed a feature-selection algorithm based on gene cofunctional networks to pick the most relevant exposure conditions. Then, we used the extended dataset to train a support vector classifier, an artificial neural network, and an ensemble of both MLAs. Separate models were trained for each of the protein-coding genes. Validation results showed that our approach improved both the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) and the area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC). A peak increase of 8.20% in AUPRC was observed. A similar analysis on selected genes, with ten or more mutation points for each gene, also showed improvement in the general performance of the MLAs. Out-of-sample testing on adaptive laboratory evolution experiments curated from the literature provided further evidence of an enhanced mutation-prediction performance, where a maximum 8.74% boost in the AUC was observed. Finally, we highlighted the genes with the most improved and most degraded predictions due to the additional information of the cofunctional genes. This work suggests that the functional relationship between genes may play a role in gene mutation and illustrates how the relationships might help to improve mutation prediction.

This study operationalized the five dimensions of health care access in the context of contraceptive service provision and used this framework to examine access to contraceptive care at health department (HD) (Title X funded) and federally qualified health center (FQHC) (primarily non-Title X funded) clinics in South Carolina and Alabama. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2017/18 that assessed clinic-level characteristics, policies, and practices related to contraceptive provision. Provision of different contraceptive methods was examined between clinic types. Survey items were mapped to the dimensions of access and internal consistency for each scale was tested with Cronbach’s alpha. Scores of access were developed and differences by clinic type were evaluated with an independent t-test. The overall response rate was 68.3% and the sample included 235 clinics. HDs (96.9%) were significantly more likely to provide IUDs and/or Impants on-site than FQHCs (37.4%) (P

Abstract Background The Global Commission for the Certification of the Eradication of Poliomyelitis will declare the world free of wild poliovirus transmission when no wild virus has been found in at least 3 consecutive years, and all laboratories possessing wild poliovirus materials have adopted appropriate measures of containment. Nigeria has made progress towards poliomyelitis eradication with the latest reported WPV type 1 on 21 Aug 2016 after 2 years without any case. This milestone achievement was followed by an inventory of biomedical laboratories completed in November 2015 with the destruction of all identified infectious materials. This paper seeks to describe the poliovirus laboratory containment process in Nigeria on which an effective containment system has been built to minimize the risk of virus re-introduction into the population from the laboratories. Methods A national survey of all biomedical facilities, as well as an inventory of laboratories from various sectors, was conducted from June–November 2015. National Task Force (NTF) members and staff working on polio administered an on-site questionnaire in each facility. Laboratory personnel were sensitized with all un-needed materials destroyed by autoclaving and incineration. All stakeholders were also sensitized to continue the destruction of such materials as a requirement for phase one activities. Results A total of 20,638 biomedical facilities were surveyed with 9575 having laboratories. Thirty laboratories were found to contain poliovirus or potentially infectious materials. The 30 laboratories belonged to the ministries of health, education, defence and private organizations. Conclusions This article is amongst the first in Africa that relates poliovirus laboratory containment in the context of the tOPV-bOPV switch in alignment with the Global Action Plan III. All identified infectious materials were destroyed and personnel trained to continue to destroy subsequent materials, a process that needs meticulous monitoring to mitigate the risk of poliovirus re-introduction to the population.

A serological survey of the prevalence of antibodies to Salmonella gallinarum among chickens under two different management systems around Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria was carried out using the standard plate agglutination test. The objective of this study was to determine serologically the prevalence of antibodies against Salmonella gallinarum among apparently healthy chickens around Jos. A total of 700 serum samples made up of 450 exotic and 250 local breed of chickens were used for this study with 37.9% seropositvity. In the free range system (19.3%) of the flocks sampled were seropositive for Salmonella gallinarium antibodies while in the semi intensive, 18.6% of the flock tested positive. The serum agglutination test (SAT) was adapted to the microtitre format used to determine somatic and flagella titres. The antigen used for this study was specific for S. gallinarum, hence differentiation between species infection was assessed in this study. Perhaps the most feasible way to eradicate the disease is to encourage farmers (both small and large scale) to break the disease cycle at their levels by embarking on prompt and regular vaccination programmes. It is thus concluded that Salmonella gallinarum (fowl typhoid) is present in the area investigated. Fowl typhoid may continue to have a negative effect on the economy of poultry production in Nigeria if not controlled. A statistical analysis was precluded due to inadequate data sets.

This research work assessed wood and plastic in building construction. The study was a descriptive survey design and as such made use of questionnaire with 42 items. The Population of the study was 110 respondents which include 40 building professional and 70 non-building professional. The data were analysed using mean and standard deviation. The finding of the study shows that plastic work form can be used for casting slab, concrete wall among others. The finding also revealed some factors that determines the selection of form work such as climatic condition, labour efficiency and that plastic formwork saves cost as a result of long reuse period. It is therefore recommended that; plastic and wooden formwork should be integrated often in the casting of slabs, beam and columns without discrimination, proper adherence to standards and specifications for use of any type of formwork, there should be large scale production of plastic formwork to conserve forest and wood, factors to be considered in the selection of formwork should not be ignored, there should be proper weighing of the advantages and disadvantages of each type of formwork relating to the scale of construction before the choice of any formwork.

This essay argues that globalisation is nothing but a renewed ideological onslaught by the western powers to reify their culture of racialised subjugation of Africa and other third world countries. To do so they persistently resort to the age old untenable argument that climate and geography are responsible for Africa’s underdevelopment. Apart from shifting the blame of Africa’s crises away from the effects of their direct actions, the climatic and geographic justifications for the African crises is an attempt to justify racial inequality which works to the political and economic advantage of the West. Globalisation and globalism by their nature and design therefore work hand in hand to ensure a hegemonic consciousness among Africans such that even their responses to globalisation is imagined and mediated from the pedestal of dependence, thereby entrapping them further into the conspiracy of Western globalised world. The way out for Africa is to respond to globalisation via the prism of “globalisation from below”, that is, to continue to determine their terms for partaking in the global in the context of their own existence.