Mechanical Performance of Recycled Aggregate Concrete Containing Lathe Waste Steel Fibre

The increasing demand, diminishing supplies, and growing pressure on natural resources have necessitated recycling and reusing waste. Several kinds of research have been done on the reuse and recycling of debris from building projects. Thus, with a view to the reuse of waste materials, the elimination of environmental contamination, the reduction of overhead costs of concrete, and the extension of the service life of concrete structures, this research aimed to study the feasibility of utilizing recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) with constant inclusion of waste steel fibre (LWSF) in concrete by evaluating its workability, compressive and splitting tensile strengths. A concrete mix ratio of 1:2:4 by weight of cement, sand, and granite was adopted with a water-cement ratio of 0.45. Five different concrete mixes were prepared in this study; one normal aggregate concrete (NAC) and four (4) other mixes with 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% recycled aggregate content with a constant 1.5% addition of LWSF. The result of workability shows a reduction with an increase in the percentage replacement level. The recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) was characterized by lower compressive strength as compared with the NAC. When the replacement ratio increased from 25% to 50%, a significant reduction of about 14% and 30% were observed in the compressive strength at 7-days, but at 28-days slight increase in the compressive strength was observed. Also, a decrease in splitting tensile strength as the percentage replacement of crushed granite (CG) with RCA is increased was observed. Overall, the findings showed that the RAC-containing LWSF is environmentally sustainable and would significantly reduce the global greenhouse impact and building materials' overall quality. Keywords: Recycled concrete, lathe waste, steel fibre, compressive strength, tensile strengt

A rare metastatic region of cervical cancer; the brain: a case report

Cervical cancer metastasizes commonly to the bone, lungs, liver and the supraclavicular lymph nodes. Rare sites of metastasis the brain, breast, paraspinal muscles, duodenum and heart have been reported. Case report: A 53-year-old postmenopausal woman presented to our facility with a one-month history of vaginal bleeding. She was found to have an exophytic cervical mass on pelvic examination. She was managed as a case of stage IIIB cervical cancer. Histology revealed Squamous Cell Carcinoma type. She had radiotherapy and was symptoms free. She represented 3 months later with visual disturbance, headache and vomiting. She was found to have metastatic lesion to her brain. She survived for 3 months and 3weeks after first treatment. Conclusion: The prognosis of cervical cancer patients with brain metastases is frequently poor with median survival of only a few months such as in this case who survived 3 months and 3 weeks after first treatment. Only few reports have incidences of long-term, disease-free survival in these patients

Pattern of prostate cancer among a Nigerian population: A study in a single tertiary care centre

Background: Prostate cancer has become a global health challenge because of its rising morbidity and mortality in males.It is the second cause of cancer death following lung cancer in men.It is rare under the age of 40 and its incidence has been shown to increase exponentially with age. Previously, Prostate cancer was thought to be a disease rare in blacks owing to the fact that not so much was known of the disease.Aim and objectives: The objective of the study was to review the prevalence, pattern of presentation and clinic-pathologic findings of prostate cancer in the Department of Radiotherapy,Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH),between January 2001 to December 2010 in comparison to previous and recent studies globally.Methodology: Data collection for all patients histologically diagnosed with Prostate cancer at the Department of Radiotherapy,LUTH,from 1st of January 2001 to 31st of December 2010 was done.Results: A total of 144 cases with histologically confirmed Prostate cancer seen during the ten year study were analysed.The highest frequency was seen in the year 2010 with 34 cases.The age range was 41 to 81years with a mean of 66.19 ±7.30years.Adenocarcinoma was the commonest histological type with 98.6%.9(6.3%) patients had a positive family history of prostate cancer out of which 3(33.3%) had their brother affected the malignancy. 51(35.4%) patients presented with stage IV disease.18(12.5%) patients had a Gleason's score of 6,10(6.9%) patients had a Gleason's score of 7 and 2(1.4%) patients had a Gleason's score of 10. The most common presenting complaints were bone pains seen in 51(35.4%) patients, frequent night urine and difficulty with micturition seen in 50(34.7%) and 42(29.2%) patients respectively.Conclusion: This study showed that prostate cancer is not as rare as it used to be.Reasons attributed to its rarity then were lack of awareness,poor screening facilities and poor diagnosing technique.Keywords: prostate cancer,presentation,tumour characteristics,Nigeri

Asphaltene detection using Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS)

Peer reviewedPostprin

Consumers Preference for Hotel Amenities and Willingness to Pay in Lagos

The paper investigated user demand and pricing determinants ofhotel facilities in Lagos. The main objective was to develop a model of these perceptions that will serve as a tool or framework for prospective investors and management staff of related investments. Using information obtained from personal interviews and structured questionnaires served on users of selected hotels in Lagos Island (Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Lekki), Hedonic Model was developed with the aid of certain identified attributes. The findings revealed that security and safety attributes, location attributes, recreation and entertainment (including food and beverages), hospitality and basic attributes are some of the significant factors affecting demand and pricing of hotel in the study area. It is recommended that investors and managers should take into consideration attributes ofhotels in line with customers' value hierarchy when making investment decisions to realize optimum sustainability; and that hoteliers need to ensure that the qualities of these hotel attributes are maintained at an acceptable level by constantly reviewing customers' feedback.Keywords: Hedonic pricing; Hotels; Lagos Island; Pricing; Users demand

Click chemistry surface functionalization for resonant micro-cavity sensors

Micro-cavity resonant sensors have outer surfaces that are functionalized using click chemistry, e.g., involving a cycloaddition reaction of an alkyne functional group and an azide functional group. A first polymer linking element binds to an outer surface of the micro-cavity and has an azide functional group, which bonds to an alkyne functional group of a second polymer linking element as a result of a cycloaddition reaction. A functionalization element such as an antibody, antigen or protein for sensing a target molecule is bound to the second linking element

Mechanism of active targeting in solid tumors with transferrin-containing gold nanoparticles

PEGylated gold nanoparticles are decorated with various amounts of human transferrin (Tf) to give a series of Tf-targeted particles with near-constant size and electrokinetic potential. The effects of Tf content on nanoparticle tumor targeting were investigated in mice bearing s.c. Neuro2A tumors. Quantitative biodistributions of the nanoparticles 24 h after i.v. tail-vein injections show that the nanoparticle accumulations in the tumors and other organs are independent of Tf. However, the nanoparticle localizations within a particular organ are influenced by the Tf content. In tumor tissue, the content of targeting ligands significantly influences the number of nanoparticles localized within the cancer cells. In liver tissue, high Tf content leads to small amounts of the nanoparticles residing in hepatocytes, whereas most nanoparticles remain in nonparenchymal cells. These results suggest that targeted nanoparticles can provide greater intracellular delivery of therapeutic agents to the cancer cells within solid tumors than their nontargeted analogs

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF SOLID MINERALS FROM LOKOJA AND JOS IN NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

The structural, qualitative and quantitative analysis of grained rock samples were carried out with the view to establishing the mineral components present in the samples. Two samples were collectedfrom a mining site in Jos, Plateau State as well as from another mining site in Lokoja, Kogi State.The two samples were prepared for XRD analysis using a backloading preparation method and done with X-ray diffractometer. The analysis confirmed the presence of minerals such as Cassiterite (SnO2), Ilmenite (FeTiO3), Zircon (SiO4),Columbite (Fe), Manganoan in the ample from Jos as a result of the matching of the peaks with the database 2θ values. The percentage area integration of the various phases which correlated to the quantity of the various minerals in the sample revealed that Cassiterite(Tin Oxide) of 65.9% value was from Jos and is a Tin Ore. The grain sizes for Cassiterite (SnO2), Ilmenite (FeTiO3), Zircon (SiO4), Columbite (Fe), Manganoan are 17.674, 35.348, 37.208, 70.695, 20.199 in nm respectively. The samples from Lokoja showed the presence of Magnetite (Fe¬3O4), Quartz (SiO2), Hematite (Fe2O3) and Geothite(FeO(OH)) and confirmed the grain sizes of 28.278, 35.348, 28.278. 17.673 and 23.565 in nm respectively.The constituents of Lokoja samples, all of which contained Iron Oxide also indicate that the sample is an Iron Ore. These findings confirm the fact that the mineral resources that are present in these regions of the country areeconomically viable and have the potential to boost economy and industrial development&nbsp

Associations between Cognition, Gender and Monocyte Activation among HIV Infected Individuals in Nigeria.

The potential role of gender in the occurrence of HIV-related neurocognitive impairment (NCI) and associations with markers of HIV-related immune activity has not been previously examined. In this study 149 antiretroviral-naïve seropositive subjects in Nigeria (SP, 92 women and 57 men) and 58 seronegative (SN, 38 women and 20 men) were administered neuropsychological testing that assessed 7 ability domains. From the neuropsychological test scores was calculated a global deficit score (GDS), a measure of overall NCI. Percentages of circulating monocytes and plasma HIV RNA, soluble CD163 and soluble CD14 levels were also assessed. HIV SP women were found to be younger, more educated and had higher CD4+ T cell counts and borderline higher viral load measures than SP men. On the neuropsychological testing, SP women were more impaired in speed of information processing and verbal fluency and had a higher mean GDS than SN women. Compared to SP men, SP women were also more impaired in speed of information processing and verbal fluency as well as on tests of learning and memory. Numbers of circulating monocytes and plasma sCD14 and sCD163 levels were significantly higher for all SP versus all SN individuals and were also higher for SP women and for SP men versus their SN counterparts. Among SP women, soluble CD14 levels were slightly higher than for SP men, and SP women had higher viral load measurements and were more likely to have detectable virus than SP men. Higher sCD14 levels among SP women correlated with more severe global impairment, and higher viral load measurements correlated with higher monocyte numbers and sCD14 and sCD14 levels, associations that were not observed for SP men. These studies suggest that the risk of developing NCI differ for HIV infected women and men in Nigeria and, for women, may be linked to effects from higher plasma levels of HIV driving activation of circulating monocytes