Comparative life cycle assessment of a novel sustainable road pavement system adopting recycled plastic from PET bottles and carbonated aggregate

Road surfacing is crucial in improving community accessibility and mobility. Adopting sustainable measures is extremely important to prevent the significantly high environmental burdens associated with road pavement systems production. This study presents a comparative life cycle assessment of traditional pavement systems and their sustainable alternatives made and tested at the London South Bank University laboratories. The low-impact pavement mixes proposed herein provide a novel, innovative method for producing sustainable road systems. Unlike traditional approaches, these asphalt mixes utilise materials derived from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (plastics) and carbonated aggregates and are produced at temperatures significantly lower (warm mix). The Simapro software (Consultants, 2023) [1] was used to model the analysed asphalt mixes, and all life cycle inputs and outputs were characterised during the life cycle impact assessment phase into potential impacts using the IMPACT World + Midpoint method. Additionally, an uncertainty analysis employing Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to validate the life cycle assessment findings, reinforcing the robustness and credibility of this study's results. Notably, the assessment shows substantial reductions in the environmental impact of road pavement mixes adopting recycled plastic and carbonated aggregates, with various outcomes. Compared to traditional mixes, Climate Change emissions are reduced by approximately 40 %–60 %, Marine Eutrophication exhibits reductions of up to 30 %, and Freshwater Eutrophication decreases by up to 20 %. These findings suggest that integrating this sustainable road pavement approach can significantly reduce the environmental burdens of asphalt production and give asphalt a pivotal role in tackling waste reduction, carbon sequestration, and achieving Net Zero. Also, the proposed system can positively contribute to the current United Kingdom's (UK) circular policy model by reconsidering current waste management frameworks and integrating more efficient settings

IS THERE NO MAN WITH PENIS IN THIS LAND? EROTICISM AND PERFORMANCE IN YORUBA NUPTIAL SONGS

This paper explores the role of African women, especially the Yoruba women, in literature by looking at the songs that form an integral part of their nuptial poetry (epithalamium). Music plays, preserves and perpetuates vital traditions among the Yoruba. Some satirical songs, mainly produced by women, are prominent during the traditional marriage ceremony among the Yoruba, but these songs are sung less and less. This paper also attempts a hermeneutical inquiry into the content of the songs: how the Yoruba women espouse erotic views during the marriage ceremony that seem repressed in ordinary life. The study shows that women's voice could be better heard in their lore, as they use these songs as manifestations of their collective and dynamic group consciousness

Cost-effectiveness of riociguat and bosentan for the treatment of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension

OBJECTIVE: To conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of riociguat and bosentan in the management of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) from a United States payer perspective. METHODS: A Markov model was developed following the recommendations of the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research - Society for Medical Decision Making Modeling Good Research Practices. A cohort of patients with inoperable CTEPH or post-pulmonary endarterectomy CTEPH were simulated over their lifetime. Health outcomes were measured as quality-adjusted life years (QALY). Efficacy and safety data were obtained from BENEFiT and CHEST-1 trials. Drugs costs, associated costs for the management of CTEPH, were obtained from Redbook and published information such as the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUPnet) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Physician Fee Schedule. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the robustness of the model projections. RESULTS: Riociguat was more effective than bosentan with an incremental cost of $132,065 and an incremental quality-adjusted life year (QALY) of 0.20, corresponding to an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of -$649,380 per QALY (in favor of riociguat). Riociguat had a lower total discounted lifetime cost compared to bosentan ($2,307,488 versus$2,439,555). Probabilistic sensitivity analyses confirmed dominance of riociguat in 74% of the Monte Carlo simulations. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this model indicates that riociguat is more effective and less costly than bosentan in the management of patients with inoperable CTEPH or post-pulmonary endarterectomy CTEPH

A survey of the resources senior secondary school teachers use in teaching vocabulary in Ibadan North, Nigeria

This study surveyed the resources senior secondary school English language teachers use in teaching vocabulary in Ibadan North. The descriptive research design of the survey type was employed in the study. Using the purposive sampling technique, all the two hundred and twenty-four (224) English and Literature-in-English teachers in the study area as at the time of this study constituted the sample based on the intervening variables of gender, qualification, school type and experience. Only one hundred and ninety-six (196) questionnaires were properly filled and returned. A reliability coefficient of r = 0.90 was obtained using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Statistics. This showed that the items were of high stake. Findings revealed that the teachers seemed to make more frequent use of non-human instructional resources for teaching vocabulary than the human instructional resources. Also, there were no significant differences on teachers’ qualification, school type and experience except for gender. It was concluded that, aside from teachers’ gender, no other variable had any influence on the resources used for the teaching of vocabulary in senior secondary schools in Ibadan North. It was thus recommended that teachers should employ both human and non-human teaching resources during the teaching and learning of vocabulary

Challenges of poor surface water drainage and wastewater management in refugee camps

Since refugee camps are meant to be temporary and setting them up usually require urgency, little attention has been given to provision of surface water drainage and to a lesser extent wastewater management. As the population of refugees in these camps continues to grow, the effectiveness of drainage infrastructure continues to diminish. In addition, availability of sufficient safe drinking water and wastewater management have become difficult in the refugee camps across the world. The present situation in refugee camps across the world, such as flooding and outbreak of water-related diseases in South Sudan refugee camps, has made the need for sustainable approach to solving the problems to be very urgent. One sustainable way of solving the problems of flooding and outbreak of diseases in refugee camps is to provide effective drainage and wastewater infrastructure that ensures all the wastewater are properly collected, treated and reused for various purposes such as agriculture, drinking, laundry and other relevant uses. This paper therefore presents the current state of drainage and wastewater management in two refugee camps and propose low-cost technologies for stormwater management, wastewater collection, treatment and potential reuse, suitable for these refugee camps

Modelling of a sustainable refugee camp drainage system for stormwater management

A novel decentralised Sustainable Refugee Camp Drainage System (SRCDS) has been developed for the effective management of stormwater in the Dadaab refugee camp, Kenya. The SRCDS uses the principle of Best Management Practices (BMPs) for runoff generated from extreme rainfall events in order to minimise flooding of inhabited areas of the camp. The performance of the drainage system was modelled by the Storm-water Management Model (SWMM) and Micro Drainage Sustainable Drainage Systems (MDSuDS) software to obtain: (i) the total stormwater flow in a sub-catchment in order to obtain total runoff volume and peak runoff rate and (ii) the required dimensions of the SRCDS to effectively drain and store runoff for reuse. The results showed that the total volume of runoff generated over the sub-catchment area reduces significantly as the volume of water drained by the SRCDS increases, and the peak runoff rate decreases as the size of the SRCDS increases. The SRCDS was effective in dealing with the peak rate and total volume of runoff anticipated

Response of Growing Rabbits to Concentrate Diet Supplemented with Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala) or Siratro (Macroptilium atropurpureum)Leaves

Thirty (30) 8-week old rabbits of average initial weight of 900 g were used to determine the Growth Performance and Carcass yield of growing rabbits fed Concentrate diet supplemented with Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala)or Siratro (Macroptilium atropurpureum) leaves. The experiment was in a completely randomized design (CRD) with 5 treatment diets replicated thrice. The control group (T1) was fed a formulated rabbit diet, in T2, 10 % of the formulated rabbit feed was replaced with Leucaena fresh leaves, in T3, 20 % of the formulated rabbit feed was replaced with Leucaena fresh leaves, in T4, 10% of the formulated rabbit feed was replaced with Siratro fresh leaves and in T5, 20% of the formulated rabbit feed was replaced with Siratro fresh leaves. The study lasted 56 days. Feed and water were supplied ad libitum. Performance data indicated that body weight gain and feed conversion ratio were significantly (P<0.05) better in rabbits fed on 10% leucaena and 10% siratro inclusion than those fed on the 20% leucaena and 20% siratro inclusion levels. There were significant (P<0.05) differences in the organ weights of the rabbits except for lung and spleen (P>0.05). The weights of liver, heart and kidney were significantly (P<0.05) higher for rabbits fed 20%leucaena and 20%siratro diets than those fed other diets. From the results, it was concluded that inclusion of 10% leucaena or 10%siratro leaves in rabbits’ diet has no adverse effects on the performance and carcass yield of growing rabbits. Keywords: Leucaena, Performance, Siratro, Rabbits, Carcass yield

2D Geo-electrical Resistivity Imaging of Clay Deposit in Agbonmwoba Village, Edo State, Nigeria

This study involves delineation of clay deposits in Agbonmwoba village area of Obaretin town, Edo state using 2D geo-electrical resistivity tomography technique to image the extent and economic quantity of the deposit, in order to appraise its commercial viability. The Wenner-Schlumberger electrode configuration was employed in five different locations within the study area, and a total of ten (10) Wenner-Schlumberger soundings were acquired in the area with a spread length of 200m along each traverse. The field data was inverted using the Earth Imager 2D inversion software program. Low resistivity geologic formations (ρ < 50 Ωm) were interpreted as clay formations using knowledge of regional geology of the area as reported from previous studies. Along traverses 1, 2 and 8 sampled at old Sapele road Ekiosa clay deposits was imaged at depth of 8.9-15m at lateral spread of 30m and 70m in TR1, 8.9-17.9m in TR2 and 4m in TR8. In traverses 3 and 4 sampled along Presco road in Obaretin, clay deposits were imaged at 8.9m from the surface in TR3 and 8.9-10m in TR4 at lateral spread of 70m and 100m respectively. Traverses 5, 6 and 7 were sampled at Agbonmwoba primary school, and clay deposit was imaged at 17.9-21m in TR5 at lateral spread of 80-90m, clayey sand was imaged at 7.5m (< 8.9m) and sand deposit was imaged at 24.0m (< 26.8m) which underlies clay. In TR6, clay deposit was imaged at 8.9m from the surface and in TR7, clay deposits were imaged in layers at profound depths >30m at lateral spreads of 20-80m and 130-160m respectively. In TR8 clay deposit was imaged at 4m from the surface. In TR9 clay deposit was imaged at 8.9-17.9m at lateral spread of 90-110m and in TR10 clay deposit was imaged at 17.9-20m at lateral spread of 40m and 100-120m respectively. This results show that clay deposits imaged along traverses 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, and 10 are located at proximal depths within the subsurface and this implies that the subsurface geology distribution along these profiles is slightly homogenous in lithology, and clay deposits along these traverses are exploitable, while clay deposits along traverses 3, 6 and 8 are found at the surface (0-8.9 m) as thin clay deposits and therefore not commercially viable for exploitation. Clay deposits imaged in traverse 7 was relatively massive in size (subsurface distribution) and was observed at profound depth of 26.8-35.7m (> 30m), which makes it commercially viable for exploitation compared with other traverses. The results was correlated with borehole lithologic section drilled along TR5 in the area and both sections agreed in lithologic sequence with respect to depth. Thus, 2D resistivity imaging gives a better vertical and lateral view of subsurface layers than geo-electric sections computed from 1D models, because of its ability to give a continuous record of subsurface formations at greater depth. Keywords: Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), Clay deposit, Wenner-Schlumberger configuration, 2D resistivity pseudosection. DOI: 10.7176/JEES/10-10-06 Publication date:October 31st 202

Effect of Viscous Dissipation on Natural Convection Flow in a Vertical Parallel-Plate Microchannel with Suction and Injection

This paper investigates the effects of viscous dissipation on the hydrodynamic and thermal behaviour of a fully developed natural convection flow in a vertical parallel–plate microchannel with suction and injection by the Homotopy perturbation method. The velocity slip and temperature jump conditions at the walls are taken into account. The influence of viscous dissipation () on the microchannel hydrodynamic and thermal behaviour was discussed with the aid of graphs. The study reveals that the presence () and variation of viscous dissipation parameter in natural convention flow significantly affects the microfluidic system of infinite length and should not be neglected. Keywords: Natural convection, viscous dissipation, suction and injection

Preliaminary Comparison of the Effects of N-(1, 3 dimethybutyl)-N- phenyl-p-phenylene diamine (DPPD), Galic Powder (GP) and N-isopropyl-n-phenyl-p-phenylene diamine (DPPD) on the Properties of Natural Rubber Compound

The effects of N-(1,3-dimethyl butyl)-N- phenyl-p-phenylene diamine, DPPD (anti-oxidant), garlic powder, GP and N-isoprophy N- phenyl-p-phenylene diamine, PPPD (anti-degradant) have been examined.  Garlic powder shows comparable tensile strength, hysteresis, (heat build-up) hardness, scorch time (resistance to pre-vulcanization), crosslink density and reversion resistance to the DPPD (anti-oxidant), but better tensile strength, cure time, hysteresis and hardness compared to the PPPD (anti degradant).  Garlic powder exhibits comparable ability to resist pre-vulcanization and reversion to both the antioxidant and the antidegradant