Archives-April 2018

Critical care units require special space and equipment considerations for safe and effective patient care, staff functions, and family participation. Families and visitors to critical care units often wait for long periods, including overnight, under highly stressful situations. They tend to congregate at unit entries to be readily accessible to staff interaction. Not every hospital will provide all types of critical care. Some hospitals may have asmall combined unit; others may have separate, sophisticated units for highly specialized treatments. Critical care units shall comply in size, number, and type with these standards and with the functional program. Design shall address such issues as privacy, atmosphere, and aesthetics for all involved in the care, comfort of patients and fire protection in critical care units.

The effect of DOP plasticizer percentage on limiting oxygen index and thermal stability of plasticised PVC was investigated in this paper. DOP was added PVC with various quantities (20, 30, and 50) pphr. LOI and thermal stability instruments used for estimating LOI and thermal stability of plasticised PVC as a function to DOP percentage. The results showed that the thermal stability of plasticised PVC was improved by increasing DOP percentage, but in the same time has a reverse behavior where the LOI decreases as the DOP percentage increases.

In this project a high power capacity rating pedal operated electric rickshaw has been designed and developed. The design is being carried out using the mostly standard component available in the market has been used for ease of maintenance. The uniqueness of this development is that it is pedal operated and motor driven which can help the rickshaw pullers to apply less manual effort while carrying passengers on gradient. The passenger’s seat is designed such that four passengers can sit comfortably. The necessary calculations were carried out for required motor power and battery capacity. Accordingly the BLDC motor of 550 watt and rechargeable lead acid battery of 48V, 65 AH were selected for present purpose. The motion from pedal to rear axle has been transmitted through an intermediate axle. The strength analysis of chassis structure and stability of the vehicle has been checked through CAE software. The chassis and the body structures are assembled together using fasteners with a rubber pad to absorb the shocks. The batteries, controller and other electrical accessories are placed under the passenger seat and a charging point is mounted at the back. The speed of motor is being regulated by a throttle provided on the handle bar. The batteries may be charged from solar charging station or from by battery swapping method. The pay load capacity is 350 kgs (4 passengers + 1puller) and the max speed is 15-20 Km/hour. The 3 nos of prototypes have been developed with improved features. The laboratory level trails has also been carried out of the developed prototypes and a very satisfactorily results is obtained up-to a distance of 40 kms in a single charge. 

Congestion in the power system transmission network has been a major constraint towards making active power available to the consumers. One of the conventional and long term methods but capital intensive to alleviating this problem is by adding new, expanding or reinforcing existing transmission facility. In this work, an interim, short term and cost effective measure – the use of TCSC and SVC in enhancing loadability of congested power transmission line was presented. The Nigerian Interconnected Power System – 330 kV bus power transmission network was used as a baseline and NEPLAN – a power system software was used to run load flow analysis on the network in four stages: a baseline load flow analysis on the network to identify areas of constraints, a load flow analysis with TCSC located in-between optimal nodes, load flow analysis with SVC located at optimal nodes and then, a load flow analysis in the presence of TCSC and SVC on the network. The impact of these activities were investigated and the results showed that under baseline condition, low voltage violations occurred at Gombe, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi, Maiduguri, Makurdi, and Sokoto bus stations with percentage bus voltage of 65.77%, 72.83%, 79.96%, 62.29%, 89.63%, 65.37%, 79.46%, and 89.07% respectively; well below the reference percentage bus voltage profile of 90%. The combined services of TCSC and SVC as proposed, remedied the violations with a corresponding percentage bus voltages of 94.83%, 99.50%, 96.84%, 99.50%, 99.09%, 94.55%, 95.48%, and 99.50% respectively. With the presence of TCSC & SVC, total active power loss on the network was reduced from 108.76MW to 59.18MW (46%), and total reactive power loss, from 931.19MVar to 505.92Mvar (46%). Loadability was greatly enhanced on the lines with TCSC and the neighboring lines. For instance, in Makurdi-Jos line, there was active power increase from 212.60MW to 300.61MW, creating about 41% capacity margin; and Kaduna-Jos line, from 45.50MW to 132.97MW, about 195% capacity margin. The overall impact is in the network is that overloaded and congested lines were greatly relieved.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of postgraduate diploma in teaching (PGDT) program graduates in utilizing various Active Learning Methods (ALMs) in their class room instruction. Descriptive survey research design that involves both quantitative and qualitative data types was employed. The participants of the study comprised 261 teachers, 21 principals & supervisors each which were selected using stratified, purposive and available sampling techniques respectively. Questionnaire, key informant interview, observation checklist and document analysis were the data collecting tools. The finding of the study revealed that, PGDT graduates were somewhat effective in utilizing various ALMs as the overall observed mean score of the respondents (2.03) was slightly above the expected mean value (2.0). Moreover, it was found out that; lecturing, group discussion, and questioning & answering techniques were the most frequently utilized ALMs with mean score 3.08, 2.90 and 2.89 respectively. Furthermore, the association between teaching experience of PGDT graduates and their level of utilizing different ALMs was not significant (r = 0.06, p=0.32 which is >0.05). T-test value t(257) =0.23, p=0.07 > 0.05) indicated that, there was no significant mean difference between male and female PGDT graduate teachers in utilizing ALMs in class room though the observed mean score of male PGDT graduates (mean=40.9) was relatively higher than their female counterparts (mean=35.0).

Trichoderma has been widely used to control R. Solani. However, there is need to evaluate the different mechanisms used to administer the biological control agent into the plant environment. A greenhouse experiment to compare the efficacy of three T. Harzianum application methods; seed bio-priming, seed coating and soil treatment to control R. solani in peas was conducted. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of T. harzianum application methods for controlling root rot and damping off caused by R. solani in peas. There were significant differences (p<0.001) between different T. harzianum application methods in reducing pre and post emergence damping off. Seed biopriming recorded the lowest pre emergence damping off incidence of 2.64 % compared to 7.16 % recorded on untreated control. Seed coating had pre emergence damping off percentages and root rot severity scores of (4.22%; 1.87) respectively. Soil treatment recorded the highest population increase of T. harzianum (2.855 x 104 CFU) 6 weeks after sowing.

Tracheoesophageal fistulas (TOF) are a rare but sometimes a severe complication of tracheotomy. Their clinical presentations, of varying severity, usually involve several symptoms. The diagnostic procedure always combines chest x-rays looking for a pneumothorax, a pneumomediastinum or an aerogastry, and bronchial fibroscopy which determines the location, size and potential severity of the lesion. Therapeutic management is based on surgical repair. Prevention of TOF is important and must represent the real treatment.

This paper deals with the physico-chemical parameters and some heavy metals in sediment samples of the Brass River, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Physico-chemical parameters and heavy metals such as pH, chloride, sulphate, magnesium, potassium, sodium, copper, chromium, zinc, cadmium, lead, manganese, iron and nickel were analyzed. In this present study, all heavy metals investigated showed low concentration of the Brass River. This means that there is a low source of pollution arriving to the Brass River. Potential ecological risk index assessment of heavy metals and comparison with DPR / FEPA standards was employed to infer anthropogenic input from natural input. The heavy metals concentration and potential ecological risk were evaluated systematically using geoaccumulation index (Igeo) and potential ecological risk index (RI). The results showed that the geoaccumulation index placed Brass River under practically unpolluted (Igeo < 0). Furthermore, the potential ecological risk index of both single and multi-element placed the Brass River under the category of low ecological risk (Eir < 40).and RI<150) respectively. In general, the ranking of heavy metals in surficial sediments samples of the Brass River in terms of potential ecological risk coefficient (Eir) was as follows: Cu > Pb > Ni > Zn. Compared to the heavy metals permissible limit in DPR/FEPA standards copper, chromium, zinc, cadmium, lead, manganese, iron and nickel showed lower concentration, possibly indicating that the origin of these heavy metals is lithogenic.

This paper investigated gender balance and the Generative Instructional Strategy (GIS) on students’ achievement in reading comprehension in senior secondary schools in Ekiti State. 120 randomly selected students in Ekiti State public secondary schools participated in the study. The quasi-experimental design was adopted in the study. For pre-test and post-test, the same comprehension passages were administered. Data was collected through the use of the research instrument titled Reading Comprehension Achievement Test (RCAT). Two hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Collected data were analysed using t-test. The study revealed that there was no significant effect of gender on the achievement of students exposed to Generative Instructional Strategy in reading comprehension. It was therefore recommended that Generative Instructional Strategy be adopted by English language teachers in Ekiti State and used in the teaching and learning of reading comprehension in the classroom.

The political, economic and social development of any country depends on the amount of revenue generated for the provision of the common needs of people in any given country. Taxes and investments are among the major sources of revenue generation and wealth creation in Nigeria. With respect to taxes, taxation has become one of the most reliable tools employed for the diversification of Nigerian economy, due to its huge contribution to revenue generation. Apart from revenue generation, taxation is also an economic and social control tool, used in shaping and influencing individual and economic activities, such as consumption, income redistribution, investments etc. Investment in the other hand, is an invaluable tool, for the growth of Nigerian economy and provision of employments. The problem with combining taxation and investment as sources of revenue generation is that, an inverse relationship exists between them, with the implication that an increase in taxation leads to a decrease in investments, which will in turn result to a poor growth of the economy. Due to the over-reaching socio-economic benefits of taxation, Nigeria like many other countries, have unduly over-stretched their tax revenue pursuit, to a worrisome point of making taxes an impediment to the growth of other sources of revenue such as investments. To avoid tax domination of investments, this article therefore examines the various tax laws affecting investments in Nigeria, with a view to pointing out those aspects capable of impeding investment in Nigeria.