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

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

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

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

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

SUITABILITY OF JATROPHA OIL AS SURFACTANT IN STEAM ASSISTED RECOVERY OF NIGERIA BITUMEN.

More ways to improve the normal high rates of steam assisted bitumen recovery techniques such as SAGD (Steam assisted gravity drainage) and CSS (Cyclic steam simulation) have been studied for some years now, and It has been discovered that the addition of surfactants on ore or injecting it with steam has recovered more bitumen than the injection of the typical steam, but due to the cost and reduction in availability of petro surfactants feed stock and the food competition created by using an edible feedstock for biodiesel surfactant there is need for the use of an alternative feedstock for biodiesel surfactants. In this project, the focus is on the use of jatropha oil (a non‐edible feedstock) for biodiesel surfactant production was proposed. The paper features series of experiments that were carried out to compare the strength of extraction of bitumen from tar sands using steam from water and steam or vapor from biodiesel (jatropha biodiesel) water mixture after spraying the core with biodiesel and finally toluene. The core was modified from the tar sand gotten from Imeri village in the southwestern part of Nigeria. The samples treated with biodiesel had better and improved recovery than the one with just steam from water, while toluene gives the over‐all best recovery. Copyright of Petroleum & Coal is the property of Slovnaft VURUP a.s. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract

Common Risk Variants in AHI1 Are Associated With Childhood Steroid Sensitive Nephrotic Syndrome

Introduction: Steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome (SSNS) is the most common form of kidney disease in children worldwide. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have demonstrated the association of SSNS with genetic variation at HLA-DQ/DR and have identified several non-HLA loci that aid in further understanding of disease pathophysiology. We sought to identify additional genetic loci associated with SSNS in children of Sri Lankan and European ancestry. Methods: We conducted a GWAS in a cohort of Sri Lankan individuals comprising 420 pediatric patients with SSNS and 2339 genetic ancestry matched controls obtained from the UK Biobank. We then performed a transethnic meta-analysis with a previously reported European cohort of 422 pediatric patients and 5642 controls. Results: Our GWAS confirmed the previously reported association of SSNS with HLA-DR/DQ (rs9271602, P = 1.12 × 10−27, odds ratio [OR] = 2.75). Transethnic meta-analysis replicated these findings and identified a novel association at AHI1 (rs2746432, P = 2.79 × 10−8, OR = 1.37), which was also replicated in an independent South Asian cohort. AHI1 is implicated in ciliary protein transport and immune dysregulation, with rare variation in this gene contributing to Joubert syndrome type 3. Conclusions: Common variation in AHI1 confers risk of the development of SSNS in both Sri Lankan and European populations. The association with common variation in AHI1 further supports the role of immune dysregulation in the pathogenesis of SSNS and demonstrates that variation across the allele frequency spectrum in a gene can contribute to disparate monogenic and polygenic diseases

A Model for Predicting Elemental Sulphur Induced Permeability Damage in a Fractured Sour Gas Reservoir

The complexity and damages that result from the precipitation and deposition of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in the sour gas reservoirs constitute challenges during modeling of gas production and transportation from such reservoirs. During production from a fractured gas reservoir with high H2S saturation, a continuous drop in the pressure is experienced within the formation. The change in pressure generally leads to a decline in the sulphur solubility and precipitation when it reaches its critical saturation state. Sulphur deposition in the pore spaces and throats of the formation rock eventually leads to porosity and permeability damage. It becomes paramount to have a model that depicts what happens in the formation throughout the life of the reservoir and to show the damage trend of the formation as the production time increases. In this current study, Robert's Sulphur deposition model was modified to account for non-darcy flow and fracture properties in the near-wellbore region. The results show that a decrease in fracture aperture lead to a decrease in the formation permeability. It also shows that higher production rate leads to increase in rate of sulphur deposition, and conclusively fracture aperture has a severe influence on the permeability of the formation as damage done in such reservoirs due to sulphur precipitation are more severe. It is advisable to maintain pressure above the critical pressure at which sulphur precipitation is activated, in order to maximize production and not to induce additional pressure drop caused by sulphur plugging on flow conduits