Quality of Life and Self-Reported Common Mental Disorders: An Analysis of Patterns and Relationship in Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria

Quality of life (QoL) is a major measure of health and wellbeing. Studies that have examined the quality of life of urban residents from a geographical view in developing countries are still emerging. This present study examines the relationship between urban residents’ quality of life and its relationship with self-reported common mental disorders. The cross-sectional survey approach which entails data collection from 1200 respondents in Ibadan city, Nigeria. WHO-5 and SRQ-20 were adapted to obtain information on quality of life and self-reported common mental disorders respectively. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to establish associations and analysis were carried out at 0.05 significance- level. The spatial pattern of quality of life was found to be random although there are pockets of poor quality of life. Quality of life was found to be negatively related to self-reported common mental disorders (R = -0.396). The urban ecological conditions of the study area indicate poor quality of life and this may be responsible for the increasing risk of common mental disorder in the city. The study concludes that common mental disorders exist in the urban settings and its occurrence is closely related to poor quality of life

Formulation and Environmental Impact Evaluation of Walnut and Soya Bean Oil Based Drilling Fluid

One of the oil and gas hazard that associated with drilling operation is oil based drilling fluid and its associated cutting disposition. It is highly imperative for policy maker to propagate the use of environmental friendly oil based mud for drilling operation. This paper formulated environmentally friendly oil based mud (using walnut and soya bean plant oil) that can carry out the same function as convectional oil based drilling fluid and equally meeting up with the HSE (Health, safety and environment) standard. Mud laboratory tests were carried out at standard condition on plant oil samples so as to ascertain the rheological properties of the drilling fluid formulations. The synthetic oil based was obtained from drilling company in Nigeria and was used as control experiment. At the end of the experiment, the properties of the walnut and soya beans based mud wascompared with industry oil based mud (synthetic oil based mud). All the results were shown to be similar to that of commercial synthetic oil based drilling mud which was gotten from the industry.From the results it can be seen that walnut and soya beans based mud actually gives a less toxic,better rheological properties, requires less waste disposal costs, hence making them more economically and technically viable for oil and gas drilling operation

THE USE OF JATROPHA OIL FOR DETERMINING THE SOFTENING POINT OF NIGERIA BITUMEN SAMPLES

The occurrence of bitumen deposits in Nigeria has been estimated to be about 42 billion tones; almost twice the amount of existing reserves of crude petroleum” Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC).For proper planning of extraction techniques for heavy crude oil such as Nigeria bitumen or oil sand, softening point is a paramount parameter need to be estimated for determining the temperatures at which bitumen will melt and when the slug start to flow into production systems. The softening point (SP) and penetration index (PI) of bitumen from parts of south-western Nigeria are important properties needed for better design and optimization of the upgrading process of Nigerian bitumen. This study was carried out to design a cost effective and efficient softening point tester to classify bitumen into grades using jatropha oil as fluid bath instead of water. Jatropha oil has higher specific heat capacity and dissipates heat faster than water. It takes shorter time to heat and soften a sample of bitumen compares to water. This saves time and cost as energy generation cost less. Use of Jatropha as bath fluid in the areas of processing bitumen would assist the operator to achieve higher output, less heat for softening and produces a higher softening point

Natural Radionuclides in Natural Spring Water Samples in Ikere – Ekiti Local Government Area, Ekiti State, Nigeria

The presence of  the radionuclides in drinking water poses a number of health hazards.  This study estimated the committed effective doses due the natural radiounuclides via consumption of spring water in the study area. 80 spring water samples were measured using gamma spectrometry.  The annual committed effective doses in Ikere local government , Ekiti State, Nigeria varied from 0.16 mSv/y to 0.22 mSv/y with a mean value of 0.20 ± 0.03 mSv/y.  The calculated annual committed effective dose is  lower than WHO recommended limit of 1.0 mSv/y for public exposure. Due to the consumption of natural spring water there is no radiological health hazards to the public within the study area. Keywords:Radionuclides, Activity concentration, Committed effective dose, Spring water, Drinking wate

Bio-Diesel Based Additive for Enhancing Flow of Emulsion in Pipeline

Emulsions are difficult to transport in the oil and gas industry due to its water content and high viscosity property, thus a need arises to break these emulsions down into lighter emulsions that would make it a lot more suitable for transportation. In this research, biodiesel was synthesized and used to break down relatively viscous emulsion samples into lighter emulsion samples. An apparatus was designed with the aim of determining the flowrate of four different samples in different proportions and compositions: 80% oil and 20% water (sample A), 90% sample A + 10% of biodiesel by volume (sample B), 75% of sample A + 25% of biodiesel by volume (sample C), 60% of sample A + 40% biodiesel by volume (sample D). The results showed that it was possible to significantly increase the flow of emulsions by injecting biodiesel, which was acted as a surfactant, resulting in the lowering of the surface tension of the emulsion sample. The relevance of this research work is validated as it proffers a solution to the transportation of heavy oil and emulsions from all over the world possessing the non-Newtonian flow behavior, which results in serious problems related to its transportation

Cord blood full blood count parameters in Lagos, Nigeria

Introduction: Full blood count (FBC), one of the most frequently requested for laboratory investigations, is a simple, fast and cheap test and is a reliable indicator of health. Due to its usefulness in the  assessment of health status of individuals, its parameters in cord blood, a major source of haemopoietic stem cell transplantation and an ideal source for laboratory investigations for newborns were determined to provide a useful guide to local neonatologists and stem cell transplant physicians. Methods: Three millilitres of umbilical cord blood was collected from 130 normal birth weight newborns (69 males and 61 females) whose cord were clamped immediately after delivery, at a teaching hospital in Lagos, Nigeria and full blood count parameters were determined using Sysmex autoanalyzer, model  KX-21N. Consented mothers of the newborns were selected based on, age between 18 and 45 years;  uneventful pregnancy and delivery and haemoglobin (Hb) concentration ≥ 10 g/dL. Results: There were no statistical gender differences in the mean values of Hb concentrations (M=13.27  ±1.60 g/dL; F=13.32±1.61g/dL; p=0.93), total white cell count (M=3.16±5.43 × 109/L; F=13.07±4.98  × 109/L; p= 0.92), platelet count (M= 223.64± 64.21 × 109/L; F=226.69±80.83 × 109/L; p=0.81) and other parameters. Conclusion: Mean values of full blood count parameters obtained in this study are  comparable to reports from other studies in developing countries and could be a useful guide for neonatologists and stem cell transplant physicians in our geographical location.Key words: Haemoglobin, cord blood, stem cell, umbilical cord, neonatologis

Genetics of Childhood Steroid Sensitive Nephrotic Syndrome: An Update

Advances in genome science in the last 20 years have led to the discovery of over 50 single gene causes and genetic risk loci for steroid resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS). Despite these advances, the genetic architecture of childhood steroid sensitive nephrotic syndrome (SSNS) remains poorly understood due in large part to the varying clinical course of SSNS over time. Recent exome and genome wide association studies from well-defined cohorts of children with SSNS identified variants in multiple MHC class II molecules such as HLA-DQA1 and HLA-DQB1 as risk factors for SSNS, thus stressing the central role of adaptive immunity in the pathogenesis of SSNS. However, evidence suggests that unknown second hit risk loci outside of the MHC locus and environmental factors also make significant contributions to disease. In this review, we examine what is currently known about the genetics of SSNS, the implications of recent findings on our understanding of pathogenesis of SSNS, and how we can utilize these results and findings from future studies to improve the management of children with nephrotic syndrome

A modified predictive model for estimating gas flow rate in horizontal drain hole

Accurate prediction of the flow rate of horizontal gas well is necessary for economic feasibility, planning and development of gas field. Most of the early models assumed that the production from the horizontal well is infinitely conductive except few recent models. Some recent models reported in the literature for estimating flow rate in horizontal well where the pressure losses due to friction along horizontal drain hole was considered. An improved model that checks the impact of all possible well bore pressure losses on gas production rate of horizontal well is reported. The neglected impact of well bore pressure losses due to fluid accumulation and kinetic energy in the past models is thought to be a conceivable reason for the inconsistency between computed rates from the models and rates got from production tests. The new model was validated using the same field contextual investigation utilized by Guo et al. and outcome got from the new model yields more satisfactory results. A more realistic results that evident all flow phenomena in gas well include the initial unsteady, pseudo-steady and steady state flow condition hence flow rate at any given production time has been established for flow of gas along horizontal well. The outcomes of the study demonstrate that the percentage deviation of the new model at steady state flow condition is less than 5.0% compared with 11.05% acquired from Guo et al. model following by 259.7% from Furui's model, and 1118.2% got from Joshi's model. This work gives field operators a precise and helpful device for prediction and assessment of production in a gas horizontal well

Modelling Minimum Flow Rate Required for Unloading Liquid in Gas Wells

Liquid loading in gas well has been an interest in the Oil and Gas sector due to the reduction of ultimate recovery and also the reduction of production from such wells. Several authors have presented various models for predicting the beginning of liquid loading in a gas well, yet there are regular errors in the model outcomes. Turner et al. based his critical model on a presumption that liquid droplet is spherical and stays that way throughout the wellbore. Li’s model developed later on based on his postulation that droplets are flat in shape and stays that way throughout the wellbore. In reality, when producing in a gas well, under pressure variation, the liquid droplets alternate between sphere-shape and flat shape. Hence there is a need to incorporate the liquid droplet deformation coefficient in the liquid loading governing equation. The newly presented model considered deformation coefficient to justify irregular changes in liquid droplet due to pressure variation during the simultaneous flow of gas and liquid droplet in gas wells, therefore, predict the critical flowrate correctly as the droplet fluctuates between spherical and flat shape. The results from the newly developed model of the critical flowrate using test data provided by Coleman et al. show that the modified critical flowrate is closer to the test flow rate than the other existing models as the error obtained is -9.12688%

A Realistic Model for Estimating Productivity Index of Vertical Well Using Wellhead Data

Productivity index calculation has been an established tool for formulating inflow performance relationship in petroleum production engineering field. The accuracy in its prediction is highly desirable to petroleum industry to predict the well production efficiency and aid in economic analysis of the well. Inability to accurately model and predict flowing bottom-hole pressure in a well may result in erotic value of productivity index of a well. This paper present an improved model for estimating flowing bottom-hole pressure and analyse its effect on productivity index value of a vertical well without ignoring any pressure resisting terms in the governing thermodynamic equation. Satisfactory pressure differential and productivity index results were obtained at any location in the wellbore, at all time and at both steady and unsteady state period using the newly developed model. Generally the flow phenomenon after shut in requires sufficient time to stabilise or advance to pseudo steady or steady state condition has been demonstrated by this study compared with the existing models that stabilised throughout the flowing period. This study also proves that inaccuracy in the results of existing models were not only caused by the effect of pressure restriction due to friction as opined by Guo et al but may have due to oversight of all pressure restriction term in the fundamental governing equation of flowing fluid in a vertical wellbore