Performance of No-Filter Smooth Drain Pipe on Clayey Loam

The performance of smooth drainage pipes fitted with no-filter material as against those with nylon, rice husks and cowpea chaffs were investigated. The study was conducted on a clayey loam during the 2005, 2006 and 2007 rainy seasons.  The experimental design was completely randomized design replicated three times.  The treatments applied include drains installed with cowpea chaff, rice husks, no-filter and nylon drainage filter materials.  The filter materials were compressed using locally available materials and installed manually to a soil depth of 25 cm using ASABE Standards (2006). The drainage area was about 180 m2 (0.432 ha) with a buffer zone of 1m allowed in between the plots.  The slope along the length was 3.90 % and across the length was 1.63 %.  The soil physical characteristics like the texture, moisture content, field capacity and bulk density were determined.  Properties such as load at peak, strain at peak, energy at peak, load at yield and energy at yield were highest for sand samples collected from no-filter treated pipes with recorded average values of 958.5 N, 36.53 Nm, 22.45 %, 195.63 N, and 0.93 Nm respectively.  Nylon filter pipes gave the highest strain at yield recording an average value of 8.54 mm.  Rice filter samples recorded the highest deformation at yield value of 9.29 mm. Results of the drainage yield showed that during the 2005 rainy season, plots treated with no-filter material gave the highest discharge of 56.3 l/day, while plots with rice husk gave a discharge of 44.8 l/day. For the 2006 rainy season, plots treated with no-filter material gave the highest discharge of 500.4 l/day, while plots with bean chaff gave the lowest discharge of 60 l/day.  For the 2007 rainy season, for first 11 days plots treated with no-filter recorded the highest amount of discharge recording the highest value of 110.8 l/day while plots treated with rice husk gave the highest drainage yield for the remaining 19 days recording the highest amount of 120.9l/day. The results showed that for the same rainfall amount and pattern, plot with rice husk gave the highest drainage yield of 148.9l/day, while plot with control (no-envelope) gave the lowest drainage yield of 99.4 l/day. The plots treated with nylon-synthetic material produced the best water quality because it was free of debris, smell and the discharge was clear, while that of the others were loaded with debris and discharge has a foul smell.  The study shows that drainpipes can be installed successfully in the area under study without using filter material because of the high drainage discharge and also because there is no decay of material with time

Relative Effectiveness of Water Hyacinth, Bacteria and Fungi in Purifying Sewage

The relative effectiveness of water hyacinth (Eichhornia Crassipes) (phytoremedian), bacteria and fungi (bioremedians) used for the purification of domestic sewage was carried out using Completely Randomised Design (CRD) replicated three times. Treatments imposed include: no treatment (control), 1kg and 2kg water hyacinth, bacteria and fungi cultures. Physical, bacteriological and chemical properties of domestic sewage were investigated before and after purification. The results show that for suspended solids, cultured tanks treated with 2kg water hyacinth reduced the sewage concentration from 73mg/l to 37.5mg/l, dissolved solids was reduced from 312mg/l to 266mg/l, Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) was reduced from 11.2mg/l to 4.37mg/l, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) was reduced from 7.6mg/l to 2.7mg/l. Dissolved Oxygen increased from 6.8mg/l to 7.17mg/l for 2kg hyacinth treatment due to photosynthesis but reduced to 3.7 for fungi. The cultured tanks treated with bacteria performed best in reducing turbidity and bacteriological properties of sewage. Turbidity was reduced from 5.8NTU to 1.2NTU for tanks cultured with bacteria. During the first three weeks, the hyacinth's growth was very rapid. It effectively depleted the nutrients present in the sewage, by the 4th week, gradual wilting of water hyacinth was noticed and by the end of the 5th week, serious wilting occurred due to deficiency in essential nutrients. The 2kg water hyacinth tanks wilted permanently due to total consumption of sewage. The results show that purification potential of water hyacinth is related to plants population with the 2kg hyacinth's tanks purifying better than the 1kg hyacinth density and also that bacteria purifies sewage better than fungi. Generally the 2kg water hyacinth was best in reducing the physio-chemical properties of the sewage better than the other treatments applied while the tanks treated with bacteria performed best in reducing bacteriological properties of sewage. Keywords:-Purification, sewage, phytoremediation, water hyacinth, bioremediation, bacteria and fungi.

Patients’ satisfaction with the quality of services accessed under the National Health Insurance Scheme at a Tertiary Health Facility in FCT Abuja, Nigeria

Background: Evaluation of patients’ satisfaction is increasingly gaining importance as one of the main tools for the assessment of the quality of healthcare delivery and its impact from the patients’ perspective. This study assessed patient satisfaction with services accessed under the National Health Insurance Scheme at a tertiary health facility in FCT Abuja, Nigeria.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among NHIS patients attending the General Outpatient Department at the National Hospital FCT Abuja, Nigeria between April and September 2017. Data was collected from 388 patients selected by systematic random sampling; using pretested, anonymous, self-administered, structured questionnaires, with each satisfaction area scored on a five-point Likert scale ordinal response. Evaluation was done from the typical complaints received from NHIS enrollees such as: hospital reception and patient registration process, waiting time, doctors’ consultations, laboratory services, availability of prescribed drugs and hospital facilities. Data analysis was done using IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0.Results: The overall average satisfaction score was 58.1%. The satisfaction score with various aspects of services were: doctors’ consultation (69.9%), laboratory services (66.5%), hospital facilities (62.2%), hospital services (60.4%), reception/registration (59.8%), waiting time (59%) and prescribed drugs (54.2%).Conclusion: The patient’s overall satisfaction was good. However, unavailability of prescribed drugs, long registration processes and waiting time were found to be the major causes of dissatisfaction. Therefore concerted efforts should be directed by all stakeholders towards the areas of patient dissatisfaction through better service delivery.Keywords: Patient Satisfaction, Services, Health insurance, Health facility, Nigeri

Impact of Solid Waste Management on Ado Ekiti Property Values

This paper seeks to assess the implication of the dangers posed by haphazard disposal of solid waste on the built environment cum property values by examining its impact on the inhabitants, the building structures as well as the neighborhood with particular reference to Ado Ekiti Nigeria. A review of literature which is hinged on the framework of healthy city concept is used as a standard for quality. Closed and open ended questions were administered on randomly sampled 298 residents of Ado Ekiti randomly and analyzed using simple descriptive analysis. Findings show that values of buildings as well as the physiological well-being of individuals cannot be considered in isolation without considering the building and the environment in which they live vis a vis their waste disposal methods. The study recommends rigorous public enlightenment, re introduction of hygiene studies from primary education, enforcement of environmental and waste disposal protection laws with corresponding policy statements to help achieve the Healthy City Concept of the United Nations. Keywords: building structure, solid waste, property, values.

Analysis of Groundwater Pollution from an Unlined Constructed Wetland Sludge Drying Bed

Sludge drying beds (SBDs) are part of wastewater treatment processes where dewatering and reduction of water content from the substrate sludge take place to enhance caking and thus facilitate handling and disposal. In this study, the effect of the operation of an unlined drying bed of a constructed wetland for domestic wastewater treatment on the adjourning groundwater was investigated. Experimental boreholes for water quality monitoring were constructed downstream of the SBD prior to its operation. Preliminary investigations of the quality of water in the boreholes were carried out before the operation of the SBD. The concentration levels of pH, Conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids, Colour, Mn, Fe, SO4, NO3, Total Coliform and e-coli were used to empirically and statistically determine the level of pollution of the ground water during the operation of the SDB. The 2-way ANOVA at (=0.05) showed that the operation of the SBD had statistically significant impact on the quality of the groundwater on all the observed parameters. For the parameters observed, p<0.05 (p=0.00 for the averages of pH, EC, TDS, Turbidity, Colour, Mn+2, Fe+2, SO4 and NO3), while p=0.0028 and 0.0018 for the averages of Total coliform and E.coli respectively in all the boreholes. The distances from the discharge point of the SDB were at 15m, 20m, 25m, 30m, 35m, 40m and 50m for boreholes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 respectively. Also, comparison of the means of the quality parameters with the allowable limits set by the Nigerian National Environmental Surface and Groundwater Quality Control Regulations (NSGQCR) indicated that the operation of the SBD rendered the quality of the groundwater unacceptable

EFFECTS OF AN 8-WEEK INTERMITTENT AEROBIC EXERCISE ON THE ELECTROCARDIOGRAM AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF INSTITUTIONAL SECURITY PERSONNEL IN NIGERIA

This study determined the effects of an 8-week intermittent aerobic exercise training on the resting electrocardiogram and physiological parameters of institutional security personnel in Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex (OAUTHC). The study adopted a pretest-posttest-control group experimental design. The population for the study were male security personnel of OAUTHC, Ile-Ife. Forty middle-aged volunteers who met the inclusion criteria were randomly assigned to either of Intermittent Training Group, ITG (n = 20) or control (n = 20). A structured exercise training programme, Intermittent Exercise Training Programme was used to train the ITG for 8 weeks. Resting ECG was recorded pre and post-intervention with a 12-lead Electrocardiograph, weight and height were measured with an electronic BMI scale. Blood pressure was recorded before and after exercise sessions. Participants in ITG performed the 12-minutes run/walk test before and after the 8 weeks intervention. Borg’s rating of perceived exertion scale was used to gauge exercise intensity and a structured data sheet was used for recording data. Paired- sample t- Test statistics was used to analyse data. The results showed that intermittent aerobic exercise training neither produced significant effect on the resting ECG parameters in terms of intervals; RR- interval (t = -0.79; p > 0.05), P- wave duration (t = -0.64; p > 0.05), PR- interval (t = -0.08; p > 0.05), QRS- Complex (t = -0.99; p > 0.05) and QTC (t = -1.20; p > 0.05) nor axes P- Axis (t = -0.06; p > 0.05), QRS- Axis (t = 0.78; p > 0.05) and T- Axis (t = 0.60; p > 0.05). It however affected participants’ heart rate (t = 4.41; p < 0.05) and VO2 max (t = -11.25; p < 0.05). The study concluded that intermittent aerobic exercise training produced no significant effect on the resting ECG parameters but significantly reduced heart rate and increased VO2 max.  Article visualizations

Client waiting time in an urban primary health care centre in Lagos

Background: Primary Health Care is the usual entry point into the health system and has the potential to touch the lives of most people. However one of the reasons for poor uptake of health services at primary health care facilities in Nigeria is long waiting time. This study was carried out to assess client waiting time and attitude towards services received at an urban Primary Health Centre in Lagos State.Methodology: The study design was quasi experimental (before and after) with a descriptive, cross sectional study component. Client flow analysis and client exit interviews were conducted among consenting patients attending the General Out patient Clinic within the first 2 weeks of July 2013, using flow analysis charts and an interviewer- administered questionnaire. Four doctors from the Teaching Hospital's Department of Community Health started attending to patients as the intervention, and the flow analysis charts were administered in the immediate post intervention period. Analysis was conducted using the statistical package for social sciences version 19.Results: The majority of clients interviewed were females (80%). Client waiting time was long with patients spending an average of 137.6±70 minutes before seeing a doctor for an average of 8.6±12 minutes. Over 90% of clients had a favourable attitude towards the services received at the PHC, although 54.3% felt improvements were needed. The waiting time reduced to an average of 88.7±45 minutes upon an increase in the number of doctors providing medical consultations.Conclusion: Reducing client waiting time at Primary Health Care centres is achievable and may improve patronage and ultimately serve as a cost effective strategy in health care delivery on a national scale.Keywords: Client waiting time, Primary health care,  Flow analysi