The common causes of blindness in North Western Nigeria

The purpose of this study was to find the common causes of blindness in North-Western Nigeria. A total of 475 cases were carefully selected using World Health Organization (WHO)categorization criteria. These cases were divided into five groups: 0-20, 21-41, 41-60, 61-80 and above 80 years. From the study, the following causes of blindness were identified: cataract (51.4%), glaucoma (10.7%) corneal disease (9.5%), trauma (6.7%), staphyloma (3.6%) and refractive error (1.5%). Blindness is a significant burden to society in that the cost of lost of productivity and of rehabilitation and education of the blind is very high and increasing. The emphasis on Vision 2020 therefore, is controlling the leading causes of blindness with a view to eliminating them

Financial Benefit Analysis of an Electric Water Heater with Direct Load Control in Demand Response

The peak demand reduction during peak hour is a challenge to the retail energy providers. Demand response program plays a major role to fulfil this purpose. The small household appliances like electric water heater can participate in the demand response program by aggregating it in the smart building energy management system. This paper discusses demand response possibilities of a residential electric water heater, the overall consumption profile, temperature profile and the financial benefit in the consumer level. The direct load control demand response method in yearly timeframe is proposed and applied. Realtime electricity pricing with incentive-based demand response is considered and applied to the direct load control with financial benefit to the consumers. The study includes the difference between normal consumption and consumption after using DLC, normal temperature profile and temperature profiling after DLC. The results exhibit that there is significant energy consumption reduction in the consumer level without making any discomfort.The present work was done and funded in the scope of the following projects: H2020 DREAM-GO Project (Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 641794); SIMOCE (ANI|P2020 17690); and UID/EEA/00760/2013 funded by FEDER Funds through COMPETE program and by National Funds through FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Demonstration of Electric Water Heater DR Possibility with Financial Benefit Analysis

The household small electrical appliances can participate in demand response events to support the local electrical infrastructures. Demand response (DR) plays a major role by reducing peak load consumption and controlling distributed generations. This paper presents a demonstration of DR participation of a water heater with financial benefit analysis by using a convenience tool. It also discusses a residential water heater DR possibility by analyzing the obtained data. The smart grid concept with building energy management system, DR flexibility and financial benefits are also discussed here. The main framework of the task consists of electric water heater modeling with several parameters and planning for the DR participation. The overall model is also demonstrated here with the execution of the planned tasks. The results obtained by using this tool is also represented graphically for the demonstration in the paper. It shows that the proposed methodological analysis is financially beneficial for both consumers and aggregators.The present work was done and funded in the scope of the following projects: H2020 DREAM-GO Project (Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 641794); SIMOCE (ANI|P2020 17690); and UID/EEA/00760/2019 funded by FEDER Funds through COMPETE program and by National Funds through FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Electric Water Heater Modelling for Direct Load Control Demand Response

Home Energy Management System creates the scopes to small household electrical appliances users to participate in the demand response programs. Among several load controllable electrical household appliances water heater is more suitable. Integration of water heater is considered to manage the demand response events that can contribute to smart grid technology. This paper represents a thermodynamic load model for a water heater, which is considered as to be controlled through direct load control for demand response program. The daily electricity consumption and temperature profile of the heater is also considered, the direct load control method is activated to the heater as soon as the energy consumption reaches to 1 kW, with the effects the device is turned off for next one hour. In results, it gained a significant reduction in the electricity consumption for the users without making any discomfort as temperature does not reduce to disruption level. Real time electricity pricing is also compared which implied financial benefit to the consumers. The result exhibit that the method applied to this heater can contribute and participate in the demand response events.The present work was done and funded in the scope of the following projects: H2020 DREAM-GO Project (Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 641794); SIMOCE (ANI|P2020 17690); and UID/EEA/00760/2013 funded by FEDER Funds through COMPETE program and by National Funds through FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Optimization of an Alkylpolyglucoside-Based Dishwashing Detergent Formulation.

The aim of this work was to formulate and optimize the washing performance of an alkylpolyglucoside-based dishwashing detergent. The liquid detergent was formulated with five ingredients of commercial origin: anionic (linear sodium alkylbenzenesulfonate and sodium laurylethersulfate), nonionic (C12–C14 alkylpolyglucoside) and zwitterionic (a fatty acid amide derivative with a betaine structure) surfactants, and NaCl for viscosity control. In addition to the plate test, other properties were investigated including ‘‘cloud point’’, viscosity, and emulsion stability. Statistical analysis software was used to generate a central composite experimental design. Then, a second order design and analysis of experiments approach, known as the Response Surface Methodology, was set up to investigate the effects of the five components of the formulation on the studied properties in the region covering plausible component ranges. The method proved to be efficient for locating the domains of concentrations where the desired properties were met

Development and Evaluation of Orally Disintegrating Tablets of Montelukast Sodium by Direct Compression Method

Purpose: To design an orally disintegrating montelukast sodium tablet (ODT) that disintegrates in the oral cavity leaving an easy-to-swallow residue especially for pediatric and elderly patients who have difficulty swallowing tablets.Methods: Two different formulations of montelukast sodium (5 mg) orally disintegrating tablets were designed and manufactured by direct compression method, using microcrystalline (Avicel PH-102), mannitol, sodium bicarbonate, crospovidone and magnesium stearate as key excipients, and with cherry flavor and aspartame as flavor and sweetener, respectively. These formulations were then evaluated using pharmacopoeial and non-pharmacopoeial physical and chemical tests. Dissolution and assay tests were performed using USP apparatus II and ultraviolet (UV) spectrophotometry, respectively. Formulations with better results were further subjected for optimization study using central composite design method.Results: The results of prototype formulation batch (Trial-02) and the finest optimization formulation batch (FOB-01) reflected the successful development of new formulation of orally disintegrating montelukast sodium 5 mg tablet by direct compression technique. The value of similarity factor (f2 > 50), indicating that both formulations have similar drug release profiles. The formulations were further evaluated for three and six months under accelerated conditions to ascertain their stability.Conclusion: The results obtained demonstrate the suitability of the formulation as an ODT for convenient delivery of montelukast sodium for asthmatic patients. However, clinical studies are required to confirm this.Keywords: Orally disintegrating tablets, Asthma, Disintegration, Dissolution, Montelukast sodiu

Chemical and Physical Comparative Study of the Effect of Wet and Dry Beneficiation of Kankara Kaolin

Chemical and physical comparative effect of wet and dry beneficiation processes for purification of kaolin was studied. X-ray flourescence XRF and particle size analysis of kaolin clay before and after beneficiation were carried out. The Si/Al ratio of the raw kaolin which was 1.90 decreased by 1.6 and 17.9% after the wet and dry beneficiation processes respectively. The clay content of the raw clay which was 48 wt% was improved to 73 wt% after the dry beneficiation while the impurity content was reduced from 52 to 27wt%.http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v34i2.1

Investigation of Natural Effective Gamma Dose Rates case study: Ardabil Province in Iran

Gamma rays pose enough energy to form charged particles and adversely affect human health. Since, the external exposure of human beings to natural environmental gamma radiation normally exceeds that from all man-made sources combined, natural background gamma dose rates and corresponding annual effective doses were determined for selected cities of Ardabil province from 2009 to 2010. Outdoor gamma dose rates were measured using an Ion Chamber Survey Meter in 105 locations in selected districts. Average absorbed dose for Ardabil, Sar-Ein, Germy, Neer, Shourabil Recreational Lake, and Kosar were determined as 265, 219, 344, 233, 352, and 358 nSvh-1, respectively. Although dose rates recorded for Germi and Kosar are comparable with some areas with high natural radiation background, however, the dose rates in other districts are well below the levels reported for such locations. Average annual effective dose due to indoor and outdoor gamma radiation for Ardabil province was estimated to be 1.73 (1.35-2.39) mSv, which is on average 2 times higher than the world population weighted average

A Simple Smart Home Based On Iot Using Nodemcu And Blynk

The internet of things (IoT) is connecting the devices and tools to the internet network to be controlled by websites and smart phone applications remotely, also, to control tools and instruments by codes and algorithms structures for artificial intelligence issues. In case we want to create advanced systems using python algorithms, Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection is connected to our tools, equipment, and devices controlling them by smart phone applications or internet websites. That’s actually the simplified definition of IoT. Farther than just using the IoT as a smart home to operate lamps or other home-use devices, it can be used as a security system or an industrial-use system, for example, to open or close the main building gate, to operate full automatic industrial machine, or even to control internet and communication ports. And more ideas can be done by using IoT technology. A huge industrial facilities or governmental institutions have much of lamps. Employees sometimes forget to turn them off in the end of the day. This research suggests a solution that can save energy by letting the security to control lighting of the building with his smart home by Blynk application. The lamps can be controlled by switches distributed in the building and Blynk application at the same time with a certain electrical installation. This research presents a simple prototype of smart home, or the easy way and low cost to control loads by Wi-Fi connection generall

A Hybrid Approach for the Recommendation of Scholarly Journals

© 2020 IEEE. The increasing number of scholarlyjournals have made it difficult for authors to select the most suitable journal that publishes their research. Existing search systems that recommend journals for manuscript submission are either based on author 's profile, bibliographic data or the copublication network. These approaches are not useful for beginner researchers who have no publication records or for those who are interested in new research domains. The present work proposes a hybrid approach that combines clustering and document similarity for the recommendation of scholarly venues. The proposal was evaluated both objectively and subjectively using domain experts. The results of mean average precision (0.84) and normalized discounted cumulative gain (0.89) shows positive recommendations made by the proposed approach