Respiratory symptoms and pulmonary functions of firefighters in Ogun State, Nigeria: A preliminary report

Objectives: This study was done to determine the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and abnormal respiratory functions as well as the association between the respiratory functions and the duration of employment among fire fighters in Ogun State, Nigeria.Methods: Forty seven (47) fire fighters were included in this study. Data was collected with MRCQ questionnaire and Spirometry was done with Spirolab III. Data collected was analyzed using IBM-SPSS 20.Results: The mean age in this study was 44.09 ± 6.89 years. 43 (91.5%) were male while 4 (8.5%) were females. 46.8% and 48.9% had cough and breathlessness respectively. 44.7% had been firefighters for 21-25 years while 70.2% work 21-30-hours/week. Spirometry was normal in 37(78.7%), obstructive in 8(17%) and restrictive in 2(4.3%).Conclusion: The prevalence of respiratory symptoms was high in the firefighters in this study. Cough and breathlessness were the most reported symptoms. Majority of the firefighters had normal spirometry

Indoor localization based on multiple LEDs position estimation

This paper describes the simulation results and hardware implementation of an inexpensive, low-complexity LED based indoor positioning system. Localization by multiple LEDs estimation model (MLEM) approximates position of a mobile receiver by the acquisition of positional information from LED transmitters. Multiple LED orientation can either be with or without overlap. Receivers in a no-overlap LED orientation experience only single access while multiple access receivers are designed for orientations with overlaps. Single and multiple access systems were developed and implemented by the use of low cost ATMEG 328 microcontroller. Since multiple LEDs transmit data at the same wavelength and are asynchronous, overlap in multiple access system causes interference. The possibility of this interference is reduced by packet based pulse duration multiplexing (PDM) and a low duty cycle transmission protocol. By the use of MLEM, root mean square error in position estimation is reduced to about 1 percent of the length an indoor location. Experimental results show that overlap increases positional accuracy over a wider coverage region and that the multiple access system allows for a more reliable positioning

An Integrated Approach to Rural Development in Nigeria

Rural development practice in Nigeria has spanned over 10 decades from pre-independence to the current decade. This paper attempts a time-series review on rural development practice in Nigeria to see what has changed over a fairly long period of time. Various development plan periods have been examined in relation to rural development practice. The review shows that the greater part of public efforts on rural development was subsumed under agricultural development which was more exploitative to the rural resources and residents than improve their quality of life. Although relatively improved understanding of rural development manifested among policy makers beginning in the late 1980s, the paper argues that such understanding surprisingly did not translate into corresponding improvement in rural development practice because of several factors including weak institutional arrangements, corruption and absence of coordinated practice among competing agencies. It is the view of this paper that in order to facilitate agricultural development, government should adopt an integrated rural development approach which is a multi-dimensional strategy for improving the quality of the life of the rural people. It concludes that rural development is imperative for improved of agricultural growth and development in Africa. Keywords: Development, Rural area, Nigeria, Developing Economy, Agriculture

Spatial Modulation – A Low Complexity Modulation Technique for Visible Light Communications

In visible light communication (VLC), the fundamental limitation on the achievable data rate/spectral efficiency is imposed by the optical source, particularly the phosphor-converted white light emitting diode (LED). These low-cost white LEDs favoured in solid-state lighting have very limited modulation bandwidth of less than 5 MHz, typically. This imposes a severe limitation on the attainable data rate. This is recognised in the literature and has led to the emergence of techniques such as multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) VLC systems as a means of addressing this challenge. The MIMO approach takes advantage of the multi-LED/multi-receiver structure to improve performance. In this chapter, we shall be discussing spatial modulation (SM) as a novel low-complexity MIMO technique for the VLC system. The SM technique exploits the spatial location of the individual LED as an additional degree of freedom in data modulation. Moreover, the chapter includes the comparison analysis of the SM technique with other traditional methods of modulation such as on-off keying (OOK) and pulse position modulation (PPM)