Epidemiological Analysis and Time Prediction Models of Coronavirus (COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2) Spread in Selected Epicentres around the World: Nigeria as a Case Study

The spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2) in Nigeria from index to community cases is becoming alarming that what the future holds should be brought to bear. An analytical study and time prediction model have been conducted on the epidemiological spread of coronavirus (COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2) with data collected from records of selected epicentres in Nigeria. The data was collected between March 1 and May 31, 2020. It can be shown that the highest daily infection in March was recorded on the 28th with 32 infections while the highest fatality rate was recorded on 24th with a rate of 2.3% and recorded daily infection of 10. As at the 31st, a total number of 139 confirmed cases were recorded in Nigeria with a fatality and discharge rates of 1.4 and 6.5% respectively. It can be deduced that the highest daily infection in Nigeria in April was recorded on 30th, with daily infection of 204 confirmed cases. The highest discharge rate of 34.4% was recorded on 16th, with a fatality rate of 2.9% while the highest fatality rate of April was 3.5% recorded on 18th, which has a discharge rate of 30.6% and a daily infection record of 49. As of April 30, 2020, Nigeria had recorded a total of 1932 confirmed cases with 58 deaths. It can also be deduced that the highest daily infection in Nigeria in May was recorded on 30th, with daily infection of 553 confirmed cases. It can also be observed that the highest discharge and fatality rates for May 2020 are 29.6% and 3.6% recorded on 31st and 2nd respectively. As of May 31, 2020, the total infection stood at 10162 confirmed cases and there seems to be a continuing upward trajectory for the situation under investigation. It can also be observed that the rate of discharged cases continued to surpass those of the fatality for the months of investigation. No doubts that the COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 was first recorded in the Ogun State of Nigeria, but Lagos state has surpassed both the daily infections and the cumulative infections for the country. With collected data, MLR simple linear regression extension was used to estimate an outcome or target variable based on two or more independent variables. The variables which are the three months data collected from daily infections, totally confirmed case, total deaths and total discharged cases between March 1, 2020, and May 31, 2020, were used to propose regression equations for the prediction of the cases under study for anytime period

Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Conditions Relationship in Diabetic and SCA Patients: a Review

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), which is also known as Heart Disease has been the most common cause of death among diabetic and sickle cell anemia (SCA) patients around the world. CVD includes coronary artery disease, stroke, and peripheral artery disease while SCA includes hemolysis. These are the main types of CVD, which is similar to hypertension because of the common risk factors they have, such as obesity, arterial remodeling, abnormal cholesterol levels, etc. Diabetes and SCA belong to the largest health emergencies of the 21st century. With the high rate of people with diabetes and SCA, the rate of Cardiovascular Disease increases rapidly. The rates of CVD in high-income countries generally have low CVD because of the monitoring systems for non-communicable diseases like CVD. However, the appearance of the novel COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 has changed the narrative. With COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 attacking more on people with previous health conditions associated to cardiovascular conditions, the backbone of high-income nations is broken and those leaving with high immune conditions are at less risk whether in the high income or low-income environments. The objective of this research is to review the Cardiovascular Disease conditions to the novel COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 in Diabetic and SCA patients. This is due to the prevalence of this medical situation in the developing world or low income and densely populated countries

Effect of Temperature Changes on the Unconfined Compressive Strength of OPC Stabilized Engineering Soil with Palm Bunch Ash, PBA as Admixture

Nowadays, waste product such as Palm Bunch Ash (PBA) is produced in large quantities from the agriculture industry on a daily basis. Improper disposal of the agricultural wastes at landfills contribute to environmental pollution. The cost of construction material increases when the demand is high. Therefore, reutilization of these waste products not only reduces the cost of construction material but also minimizes waste disposal problem. In this research, ''The Effect of Temperature on Ordinary Portland Cement Stabilization of Engineering Soil using Palm Bunch Ash as Admixture'', The compressive strength of the (Laterite + cement + palm bunch ash ) specimen cured for 14 days was studied and found to have more strength than that of the 7 days curing period. The addition of palm bunch ash from 0% to 10 % was found to have increase in strength from 23oC to 60oC and records its maximum strength at 60oC which later reduces slightly from 80oC to 100oC, hence its maximum strength was acquired at 60oC. It was observed that the specimen placed at room temperature has a higher strength than that of 100oC. The specimen subjected to 100oC was observed to have the lowest strength for both 7 and 14 days cured specimen. From the compaction test, the optimum moisture content increased from 11.7% to 17.6% considering 0% to 10% addition of Palm Bunch Ash while the Maximum Dry Density decreases from 1860kg/m3to 1730kg/m3for 0% to 10% addition of PBA admixture and  the CBR increased from 82% to 93% with the increase in Palm Bunch Ash addition. Keywords: Temperature changes, unconfined compressive strength, palm bunch ash, ordinary Portland cement, admixture

Local Nanostructured Ashes Synthesized by Incineration, Pulverization and Spectrophotometric Characterization of Solid Wastes Ashes for Use as Admixtures in Soil Stabilization

Nanostructured ash materials were locally synthesized by the spectrophotometric characterization method and applied in the stabilization of lateritic soils to evaluate the effect of the ashes on the strength properties of the lateritic soil. The ashes are products of the incineration and complete pulverization of some selected biodegerable solid waste materials. Results showed that the ashes were nanomaterials by size, reactive surface, absorbance and texture. And the studied soil was found to be an A-2-7 soil, according to AASHTO classification method. These ash materials were mixed with the soil in varying proportions of 3%, 6%, 9%, 12% and 15% by weight of dry soil and their respective effects on the soil evaluated. The California bearing ratio and unconfined compressive strength results improved remarkably. The results showed that the ash materials are good admixtures in the stabilization of lateritic soils in pavement sub-grade and sub-base construction and other civil engineering works. These materials are secured free of cost and by implication reduced the cost of stabilizing the lateritic soils hence a cost effective stabilization was achieved

Modeling the Effect of Contact and Seepage Forces at Equilibrium on the Failure of Water Borehole

There have been records of failures and quicksand conditions in boreholes in recent times impeding the performance and operation of boreholes which may have resulted from various factors ranging from construction problems, drilling inaccuracies, fitting and installation problems, some chemical effects within the aquifer medium etc, but it has been ignored that a factor of great benefit to the operation of water boreholes; seepage force could get to a considerable which becomes unsafe for the well operation thereby causing dislodgement of sand particles and sandstones resulting boiling. This research work has investigated the contribution of contact force and seepage force to the failure of boreholes. This necessitated the use of combined finite-discrete element method to generate model expressions from contact and seepage forces considered to be the major forces contributing to the flow of fluid through soil mass and boiling or quicksand effect results when seepage force becomes more in effect under critical hydraulic gradient and / or critical hydraulic head. A mathematical/laboratory model was used and an expression for calculating the critical hydraulic head causing critical seepage deduced as = and the equilibrium model has deduced an expression for the safe hydraulic head during well pumping as =. These have been verified using a laboratory investigation; borehole prototype well failure test. It has been established that there is strong agreement between model result and the laboratory study result from the correlation analysis conducted which has shown correlations of 1.00975 and 0.989879999701 for the critical state condition and equilibrium state condition respectively. For purposes of future calculations, borehole performance monitoring and designs, the standard critical hydraulic head of the system from Table 3 and Fig.7 is 2.92E-8 which has the strongest agreement with 2.59E-8 of the laboratory study with a deviation of 3.3E-9. The deduced models can be used to design and monitor the performance of boreholes. For safe pumping and corresponding yield in the bore hole system, inter-granular force between granular particles should equal the seepage force and this is achieved by ensuring that the deduced model expression is used to determine the safe hydraulic head. Finally, irrespective of the fact that an increase in hydraulic head increases discharge, the system should be operated at a head safe for the performance of the well and as long as the model hydraulic head expression deduced is used under the above conditions, safe pumping can be achieved at any voltage between 150volts and 240volts.http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v34i3.3

Suitability of Olokoro and Amaoba lateritic soil as pavement construction materials

The suitability of Olokoro and Amaoba lateritic soils as pavement construction materials was investigated. Soil samples were collected from the borrow sites and were subjected to preliminary tests (natural moisture content, specific gravity, particle size analysis and Atterberg limits) and strength tests (compaction and California Bearing ratio, CBR). The liquid limit, plastic limit and plasticity index were found to be A-2-7 soil according to AASHTO classification for Olokoro and A2-6 AASHTO classification for Amaoba sample. The Olokoro sample has average value of the dry density as 1.87g/cm3 and average optimum moisture content of 15.6%. Whereas Amaoba has average maximum dry density of 1.88g/cm3 and average optimum moisture content of 16.1%. Both soils were found to have the same average specific gravity of 2.6 having liquid limit of 44% and 40% for Olokoro and Amaoba with plastic limit of 30% and 18%, plasticity index of 14% and 22% respectively. Based on the CBR values 20.3% and 19.67% respectively obtained from the two samples, the two lateritic soil will require modifications to help improve their properties for use as sub base and base materials. However, both of the soil samples are good fill materials in road work constructions.Keywords: Laterite, pavement, compaction, optimum moisture content, material

Effect of Coconut Shell Husk Ash and Palm Kernel Shell Husk Ash on the Grading and Consistency Behaviour of Pozzolan Stabilized Oboro Lateritic Soil

The effect of Coconut shell husk ash and palm kernel shell husk ash on the grading and consistency of oboro lateritic soil stabilized with pozzolan has been studied in this research. Results of the grading analysis have shown that the natural soil was classified as A-7-6 soil according to the AASHTO classification system and CH- inorganic sandy fat clay according to USCS. The consistency result of the natural soil showed that the soil is highly plastic with a plasticity index of 54.4% ˃ 17. The admixtures were used in the proportions of 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10% and their proportional effect on the grading behaviour of the pozzolan stabilized soil showed that the uniformity and curvature of the soil improved with increased admixtures. CSHA recorded a better improvement with the uniformity of the soil while PKSHA recorded better improvement with the curvature of the soil. The consistency limits results showed that the plasticity of the stabilized soil decreased with increase in percentage of admixtures making the mixture less plastic. Finally it has been established that CSHA and PKSHA are good admixtures in the stabilization of weak and highly plastic engineering soil and are recommended for use. Keywords: Coconut shell husk ash, palm kernel shell husk ash, grading and consistency behaviour, oboro lateritic soil, stabilized

Technical Note: Geotechnical Examination of the Geophysical Properties of Olokoro Borrow Site Lateritic Soil for Road Works

This present work was carried out to determine the geotechnical properties of Olokoro lateritic soil. Tests were carried out on the sample soil which includes the Atterberg limit tests, particle size distribution analysis; sedimentation test, compaction test using the West African standard and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) test as specied by the Nigerian General specication (1997). The liquid limit, plastic limit and plasticity index were found to fall into A-2-7 soil of AASTO classication and SP group of Unied Classication. The compaction characteristics of the soil were found to be 1.90mg/m3 and 14.76% for maximum dry density and optimum moisture content respectively on West African Standard. The CBR value was found to be 26%. It was recommended that the soil is good as a lling material in road subgrade and other construction works and require modication to improve its properties for sub-base and road base material.Keywords: olokoro lateritic soil, particle size distribution, compaction test, geophysical properties, california bearing rati

Developing new models for flyrock distance assessment in open-pit mines

Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i InfraestructuraPostprint (published version