Assessing Urban Households’ Willingness to Pay for Standalone Solar Photovoltaic Systems: A Case Study of Lagos, Nigeria

Citizen participation would be crucial towards transforming the global electricity infrastructure. Household involvement would be particularly vital for nations with underdeveloped grid and widespread electricity outages like Nigeria. This study investigates urban households’ willingness to pay and participate in off-grid solar photovoltaic adoption in Lagos, Nigeria. Results reveal that households have an above average interest in photovoltaic generated electricity. This was the case irrespective of tenancy type. Age, income and education also influenced participation. Although overall willingness to pay was positive, it was higher in the presence of government support. The preferred rate of fiscal incentive support was between 50-60%. In addition, when made available and given the opportunity, many households would participate in the feed-in-tariff export scheme. The implications of the study are detailed and suggestions for increased participation presented. Findings point to the importance of regulatory reforms and political intervention using favourable monetary and non-fiscal support incentives

Cobalt availability in the soil plant and animal food chain: a study under a peri-urban environment

Abstract Cobalt metal is considered as an essential trace element for the animals. Present investigation was undertaken in the peri-urban area to analyze the cobalt availability in animal food chain by using different indices. Cow, buffalo and sheep samples along with forage and soil samples were collected from the three different sites of District Jhang and analyzed through atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Cobalt values differed in soil samples as 0.315-0.535 mg/kg, forages as 0.127-0.333 mg/kg and animal samples as 0.364-0.504 mg/kg. Analyzed cobalt concentration in soil, forage and animal samples was found to be deficient in concentration with respect to standard limits. Soil showed the minimum cobalt level in Z. mays while maximum concentration was examined in the forage C. decidua samples. All indices examined in this study has values lesser than 1, representing the safer limits of the cobalt concentration in these samples. Enrichment factor (0.071-0.161 mg/kg) showed the highly deficient amount of cobalt enrichment in this area. Bio-concentration factor (0.392-0.883) and pollution load index (0.035-0.059 mg/kg) values were also lesser than 1 explains that plant and soil samples are not contaminated with cobalt metal. The daily intake and health risk index ranged from 0.00019-0.00064 mg/kg/day and 0.0044-0.0150 mg/kg/day respectively. Among the animals, cobalt availability was maximum (0.0150 mg/kg/day) in the buffaloes that grazed on the C. decidua fodder. Results of this study concluded that cobalt containing fertilizers must be applied on the soil and forages. Animal feed derived from the cobalt containing supplements are supplied to the animals, to fulfill the nutritional requirements of livestock

A quantitative investigation on recycling attitudes of gifted/talented students

Uncontrolled industrialization process since nineteenth century and the trend towards consumer society have resulted in an enormous amount of waste materials. As a result of this problem, management and safe removal of urban waste has become one of the most important environmental issues of today. Recycling projects that have been developed to solve this problem will reduce waste materials, recycle discarded materials and save energy, money and time. Therefore, recycling applications and related researches are significantly growing due to their enormous potential to solve many environmental problems of society. In this perspective, the aim of this study was to determine the recycling attitude levels of gifted/talented students. Also, gifted/talented students' recycling attitude levels was compared according to some independent variables, such as age, gender and grade. For these purposes, single scan model was performed in the present research. As a means of data collection, Recycling Attitude Scale (RAS) and the personal information form were used. The RAS was applied to 122 gifted students enrolling in Science and Art Center in Manisa Province of Turkey in 2012-2013 academic years. Gifted/talented students' ages ranged from 10 to 13 and, also, the 11-year-old candidates, who participated in the study, were majority. Statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS 17.00) programme was utilized to analyse the obtained data. The analysis results showed that gifted and talented students had fairly well recycling attitude level and there were no significant difference between gifted and talented students in terms of gender, age and class

DETERMINATION OF RETENTION OF STUDENTS KNOWLEDGE AND THE EFFECT OF CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING

In our study it was aimed to investigate secondary school students' understandings of some concepts about the unit of "Basic Components of Living Things" in biology, the relationship between their conceptual understanding and usable longer term retention of their knowledge, and the effect of misconceptions held by students over longer term retention of their knowledge. The results of achievement test itself imply that without any effort the longer term retention of students' knowledge fade away over time

Wkly Abstr Sanit Rep

19316967PMCnul

A STUDY ON DETECTING HEAVY METAL ACCUMULATION THROUGH BIOMONITORING: CONTENT OF TRACE ELEMENTS IN PLANTS AT MOUNT KAZDAGI IN TURKEY

The purpose of this study is to determine the present levels of atmospheric heavy metal pollution in the area of the Kazdagi Mountain in the Aegean region in the western part of Turkey. Twenty-five different plants were selected as potential biomonitors of trace elements including nickel, iron, zinc, lead, cadmium, and manganese (g g(-1), dry weight). The samples were collected from two different heights of Mt. Kazdagi. Atomic absorption spectrometry was used to determine the concentrations of trace elements. The mean concentrations determined at 600 m altitude ranged from 0.107 to 0.442, 0.269 to 0.619, 0.873 to 9.030, 0.338 to 0.523 and 0.143 to 2.823 (mu g g(-1), dry weight), for Ni, Zn, Fe, Pb and Mn, respectively. At 1100 m altitude, the values ranged from 0.119 to 1.806, 0.232 to 0.792, 0.618 to 5.720, 0.371 to 0.534 and 0.766 to 4.782 (mu g g(-1), dry weight) for Ni, Zn, Fe, Pb and Mn, respectively. No Cd was found at either altitude. For the determination of the existence of any differences between the averages of the herbaceous and woody plants, comparisons were made in the independent sample t-test. In the statistical analysis, comparison of heavy metal pollution values of herbaceous and woody plants for Ni, Fe and Mn was significant (P < 0.05), while it was not for Pb and Zn

DETERMINATION AND COMPARISON OF HEAVY METAL ACCUMULATION LEVEL OF Ficus carica BARK AND LEAF SAMPLES IN ARTVIN, TURKEY

The purpose of this study is to define the value of heavy metals like Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn concentrated in the F. carica bark and leaf samples collected from various places in Artvin City, Turkey. The analyses of these metals in the samples were carried out by ICP-OES. The comparisons were performed to specify whether there were any differences between the averages of the F carica leaf and bark samples in terms of heavy metal accumulation levels. According to analyses results, the contents of copper, iron, manganese, zinc, lead, nickel, cadmium and chromium (mu g g(-1), dw) in the F carica bark samples ranged from 68.88 to 88.14, 14.39 to 839.1, 0.896 to 35.39, 6.145 to 42.60, 0.113 to 1.206, 2.102 to 7.073, 0.030 to 0.180, and 2.228 to 7.747, respectively. On the other hand, for the leaf samples, the contents of heavy metals ranged from 2.801 to 26.68, 12.72 to 1605, 1.000 to 151.7, 7.383 to 40.16, 0.022 to 0.642, 0.216 to 1.849, 0.022 to 0.096, and 0.379 to 2.195, respectively. The study results showed that heavy metal concentrations in the bark samples were lower for Fe, Mn and Zn

Biomonitoring of trace element accumulation in plants growing at Murat Mountain

The purpose of this study is to determine the present levels of atmospheric trace element pollution in the Murat Mountain of Aegean Region in the western part of Turkey. Therefore, 29 different plants were selected as potential biomonitors of trace elements including nickel, zinc, iron, lead, cadmium and manganese (μg/g, dry weight). The samples were collected from two different heights of Murat Mountain. Atomic absorption spectrometry was used to determine the concentrations of trace elements. The mean concentrations determined at 1,000 m altitude ranged from 0.139 to 4.518, 0.223 to 0.986, 0.359 to 6.930, 0.443 to 0.727 and 0.077 to 3.222 μg/g, dry weight, for nickel, zinc, iron, lead and manganese, respectively. At 1,600 m altitude, the values ranged from 0.191 to 6.248, 0.302 to 1.008, 2.387 to 8.896, 0.345 to 0.570 and 0.195 to 3.502 μg/g, dry weight, for nickel, zinc, iron, lead and manganese, respectively. No cadmium was found at both altitudes. For determination of existence of any differences between the averages of the herbaceous and woody plants, comparisons were made by the independent sample t test. In the statistical analysis, comparison of trace element pollution values of herbaceous and woody plants for nickel, lead and manganese was significant (P < 0.05), while it was not for iron and zinc