A survey of the presence and quantity of heavy metals in water sources at and around the Auto Mechanic village at Lafia Junction, North Bank, Makurdi, Benue State.

This study was carried out with the objectives of accurately determining the effect of the metal activity that goes on in the study area on the water sources in the  area. Thus fifteen samples were collected from five different sites such that: three samples each were collected from three shallow strategically situated hand drawn wells in the study area: three samples were systematically drawn from three different locations along the shallow stream that flows east-west in the study area; and three samples were drawn from the only functional bore hole well in the study area. The fifteen samples were systematically homogeneously merged for sample digestion and AAS analysis into three samples: samples St. (Stream water samples): samples Wt, (well water samples), and samples BH, (bole hole water samples).     Parameters like conductivity, pH and TDS were tested on the site while TSS and sample preparation and digestion were carried out in the laboratory. The heavy metal presence and quantity was determined after proper samples preparation and digestion via Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (ASS) analysis.  The results of the study showed that pH values for the surface water samples, (samples St,) were within the limits as recommended by NWQGS and WHO  however  the values from the well water samples (samples Wt1) and the bore hole well water samples (samples BH) were slightly below the recommended pH.   Keywords: Quality, standards ,  survey , village, water

Loschmidt echo and stochastic-like quantum dynamics of nano-particles

We investigate time evolution of prepared vibrational state (system) coupled to a reservoir with dense spectrum of its vibrational states. We assume that the reservoir has an equidistant spectrum, and the system - reservoir coupling matrix elements are independent of the reservoir states. The analytical solution manifests three regimes of the evolution for the system: (I) weakly damped oscillations; (II) multicomponent Loschmidt echo in recurrence cycles; (III) overlapping recurrence cycles. We find the characteristic critical values of the system - reservoir coupling constant for the transitions between these regimes. Stochastic dynamics occurs in the regime (III) due to inevoidably in any real system coarse graining of time or energy measurements, or initial condition uncertainty. Even though a specific toy model is investigated here, when properly interpreted it yields quite reasonable description for a variety of physically relevant phenomena.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Prevalence of Pulmonary Embolism in Patients with Syncope

Importance:Sparse data and conflicting evidence exist on the prevalence of pulmonary embolism (PE) in patients with syncope. Objective:To estimate the prevalence of PE among patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) for evaluation of syncope. Design, Setting, and Participants:This retrospective, observational study analyzed longitudinal administrative data from 5 databases in 4 different countries (Canada, Denmark, Italy, and the United States). Data from all adult patients (aged 6518 years) who presented to the ED were screened to identify those with syncope codes at discharge. Data were collected from January 1, 2000, through September 30, 2016. Main Outcomes and Measures:The prevalence of PE at ED and hospital discharge, identified using codes from the International Classification of Diseases, was considered the primary outcome. Two sensitivity analyses considering prevalence of PE at 90 days of follow-up and prevalence of venous thromboembolism were performed. Results: A total of 1\u202f671\u202f944 unselected adults who presented to the ED for syncope were included. The prevalence of PE, according to administrative data, ranged from 0.06% (95% CI, 0.05%-0.06%) to 0.55% (95% CI, 0.50%-0.61%) for all patients and from 0.15% (95% CI, 0.14%-0.16%) to 2.10% (95% CI, 1.84%-2.39%) for hospitalized patients. The prevalence of PE at 90 days of follow-up ranged from 0.14% (95% CI, 0.13%-0.14%) to 0.83% (95% CI, 0.80%-0.86%) for all patients and from 0.35% (95% CI, 0.34%-0.37%) to 2.63% (95% CI, 2.34%-2.95%) for hospitalized patients. Finally, the prevalence of venous thromboembolism at 90 days ranged from 0.30% (95% CI, 0.29%-0.31%) to 1.37% (95% CI, 1.33%-1.41%) for all patients and from 0.75% (95% CI, 0.73%-0.78%) to 3.86% (95% CI, 3.51%-4.24%) for hospitalized patients. Conclusions and Relevance: Pulmonary embolism was rarely identified in patients with syncope. Although PE should be considered in every patient, not all patients should undergo evaluation for PE

Memory and meaning in the search for Chinese Australian families

Over the past twenty-five years there has been tremendous interest in researching ChineseAustralian family history. This includes documenting the experiences of Chinese migrantsand their descendants in Australia from the nineteenth century onwards, as well as seekingto understand their pre-migration lives in China and patterns of return migration. For manyChinese Australian family historians, however, there remains a major difficulty in tracingtheir Chinese ancestry – not knowing their ancestor’s name in Chinese or their precise placeof origin beyond the ubiquitous ‘Canton’. This essay discusses the endeavours of familyhistorians to uncover their Cantonese roots, including by visiting the qiaoxiang (homevillage) districts of the Pearl River Delta region in Guangdong province. We reflect on this‘roots tourism’ and the practice of personal memory-making in the wake of national andfamilial forgetting