Environmental Studies of Thermal Power Station Effluents: (A Case Study of Egbin Thermal Station, Ikorodu).

This research work was carried out to investigate the level of pollution from the Egbin thermal station and their significant effects on the environment. Samples were collected in duplicate at four different locations. The major parameters investigated on analysis include heavy metals, anions and physico-chemical parameters. BUCK 210 VGP flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) model was used for the metal analysis. Iron, zinc and copper are the predominant metals in the samples while chromium was not detected at some of the sampled locations. The average concentrations of zinc, iron, copper and chromium were 0.153 mg/L, 3.635 mg/L, 0.088 mg/L and 0.080 mg/L respectively. The effluents average for temperature, pH, and conductivity were 34oC, 6.98, 445 S/cm respectively. Hardness, TS, TDS, SS, Alkalinity, acidity, DO, BOD5, phosphate, chloride and sulphate concentrations were 47.5 mg/L, 98.75 mg/L, 68.5 mg/L, 30.25 mg/L, 31.90 mg/L. 6.44 mg/L. 5.76 mg/L, 9.61 mg/L, 0.18 mg/L, 40.37 mg/L and 67.41 mg/L respectively. The high concentration of iron, zinc and some of the physicochemical parameters determined in the samples from the Egbin treatment plant and from the point of discharge showed that the effluents from the Egbin thermal station contribute to the pollutants load in the receiving lagoon.Key Words: Effluents, Metals; AAS, Pollutants, Thermal statio

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Evaluation of Postural Muscle Synergies during a Complex Motor Task in a Virtual Reality Environment

In this study, we investigate how the central nervous system (CNS) organizes postural control synergies when individuals perform a complex catch-and-throw task in a virtual reality (VR) environment. A Robotic Upright Stand Trainer (RobUST) platform, including surface electromyography and kinematics, was used to investigate how the CNS fine-tunes postural synergies with perturbative and assist-as-needed force fields. A control group without assistive forces was recruited to elucidate the effect of force fields on motor performance and postural synergy organization after the perturbation and during the VR reaching task. We found that the application of assistive forces significantly improved reaching and balance control. The group receiving assistive forces displayed four postural control synergies characterized by higher complexity (i.e., greater number of muscles involved). However, control subjects displayed eight synergies that recruited less number of muscles. In conclusion, assistive forces reduce the number of postural synergies while increasing the complexity of muscle module composition.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure