Rainwater Harvesting Potential for Domestic Water Supply in Edo State

In the face of increasing scarcity of water resources, there is a need for communities to undertake audits of their current rainwater harvesting potential as a practical and promising alternative solution for water shortage. Despite the importance of rainwater harvest in socio-economic development of communities, very little information exists in the literature concerning it. This paper is an attempt to bridge this gap by examining the techniques and materials used for rainwater harvest with a focus on the geographical spread of its use and an analysis to support its wide acceptance by considering a case study from Edo State. Investigations also relate to health implications of rainwater harvest and impact on food production. Also, examined are institutional arrangements and policies guiding water supply and distribution in the state as opposed to rainwater harvest. The total volume of water supplied by the rain (in gallons), and the volume of conserved were evaluated from hydro-meteorological data collection system and through a survey in different senatorial districts of the state. The results of the analysis show that majority of the people empty their tanks mid-way into the dry season, suggesting that the current volume of the tanks is not enough to sustain the people with water during the dry season period. New constructions of bigger tanks are therefore recommended, particularly for families who use harvested rainwater for cassava processing.Rainwater, Harvesting, Edo State, Stream, Tanks

Electricity Trade Patterns in a Network: Evidence from the Ontario Market

We investigate whether trade has any effect on the price formation process in a specific electricity market, and identify interconnected markets that have higher impacts on prices in that market. In particular, we study Ontario wholesale electricity market and its trade with 12 interconnected markets including New York, Michigan, and Minnesota markets. We find that imports are unambiguously related to prices, while exports are not. Furthermore, imports have a positive and significant relationship with prices. We argue that the results are associated with auction design, production constraints, and technological differences. Out of the 12 studied interties, only three have a significant impact on price, two of which are the largest ones.electricity trade; simultaneous trade; transmission network; electricity prices; nonlinear Granger causality; Ontario, New York, Michigan, Manitoba, Quebec wholesale electricity markets.

Plastron properties of a superhydrophobic surface

Most insects and spiders drown when submerged during flooding or tidal inundation, but some are able to survive and others can remain submerged indefinitely without harm. Many achieve this by natural adaptations to their surface morphology to trap films of air, creating plastrons which fix the water-vapor interface and provide an incompressible oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange surface. Here the authors demonstrate how the surface of an extremely water-repellent foam mimics this mechanism of underwater respiration and allows direct extraction of oxygen from aerated water. The biomimetic principle demonstrated can be applied to a wide variety of man-made superhydrophobic materials

Skin cancer risk and shade: comparing the risk of foresters with other outdoor workers

Background: Keratinocyte carcinoma (KC) is an increasingly important public health problem with an especially high prevalence in outdoor workers. In contrast to other occupations, foresters spend most of their outdoor time under the shade of trees. Objectives: We aimed to compare the unique sun exposure patterns and sun protection behaviour of foresters with those of other outdoor workers and their relation to the KC risk. Methods: In July 2018, a cross‐sectional study was conducted at an international forestry fair using a questionnaire about health awareness and skin cancer screening by dermatologists to assess the prevalence of KC. Results: A total of 591 participants (78.7% male; mean age 46.8 ± 16.2 years) including 193 foresters were enrolled. Of all foresters, 72% experienced sunburns (solar erythema) within the past year and 50% of them experienced the worst sunburn during work. Foresters were most likely to often/always wear protective clothes (29.0%) but were least likely to often/always avoid midday sun (23.8%) and stay in the shade (31.1%). Having an outdoor profession or spending hours outside for leisure was negatively associated with sun protection. Skin examination revealed an overall KC prevalence of 16.7%, with 16.5% of foresters being affected. Conclusion: Despite being protected by trees, the risk of KC for foresters is comparable to that of other professional groups. Shade alone may not provide sufficient protection. Additional sun protection measures are necessary

Design and determination of stator geometry for axial flux permanent magnet free rod rotor synchronous motor

During designing a new axial flux permanent magnet free rod rotor synchronous motor, it is important to know before hand in which phase the largest angular velocity can occur, what is the ways to reduce the power consumption, how to achieve to increase or decrease the rotation speed by changing the core geometry. Therefore, presenting these preliminary information that are necessary for the design of a free rod rotor synchronous motor to the researchers is the aim of this work. In this respect, this study presents the design and geometrical dimensions of the stator for a new synchronous motor which is an axial flux permanent magnet free rod machine with three, four, five and six phases. This type of motors are an innovative approach especially for the applications used in industrial stirrers. Each type of stator is designed such that it has an appropriate number of phases. The rotating magnetic field over the stator is established by a PIC based microcontroller feeding the interface circuit to the stator wounds. The maximum angular speeds of bar magnet rotors with four different lengths and masses are calculated theoretically and determined experimentally. In addition, the effects of the distance between the rotor and stator, the angular speed of the rotor within the limits of the operation, and the volume of the liquid to be stirred to the power applied are investigated. Furthermore, the effects of the lengths and angular speeds of the bar magnet rotors to the distance between the rotor and stator are determined. In the light of the information obtained and taking into account the power used, the most appropriate parameters and variables such as the stator geometry changing with the phase used, the length of rotor, the distance between the rotor and stator and the angular speeds of rotor are determined. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

InterPack2003-35030 DEFORMATION AND DAMAGE IN SOLDER DURING FAST CYCLIC LOADING

ABSTRACT Experimental and numerical studies on fast cyclic loading of eutectic tin-lead solder and relevant micromechanical issues are presented. High-frequency twin-lap shear tests on solder joints show cracking inside the solder but often connecting the intruded tips of the intermetallic. Finite element modeling was carried out to study the effect of intermetallic morphology. Without the influence of local phase coarsening, the intrusion of intermetallic into the solder alloy is seen to trigger strain localization which promotes failure. The effect of local phase coarsening was also studied numerically, taking into account the individual phase arrangement. A coarser phase structure always shows a faster accumulation of local plastic strain, leading to early failure. Such results, in agreement with typical thermomechanical fatigue features, cannot be obtained from the traditional argument of strength vs. microstructural size. Modeling of the entire lap-shear specimen was also conducted for the purpose of quantifying the deformation behavior. The exact geometry of solder is found to play a dominant role in affecting the shear response

Protocol study: Sexual and reproductive health knowledge, information-seeking behaviour and attitudes among Saudi women: A questionnaire survey of university students

Copyright © 2014 Farih et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background - Sexual and reproductive health (SRH), a basic right for women worldwide, is infrequently researched in countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). No empirical studies of SRH among Saudi women exist. This protocol describes a study to explore the SRH knowledge, information-seeking behaviour and attitudes of Saudi female university students. Methods/Design - This study will administer a questionnaire survey to female students at 13 universities in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire was developed following a literature search to identify relevant content, with psychometrically tested tools used when available. The content layout and the wording and order of the questions were designed to minimize the risk of bias. The questionnaire has been translated into Arabic and piloted in preparation for administration to the study sample. Ethical approval for the study has been granted (reference no. QMREC2012/54). After questionnaire administration, the data will be collated, analysed and reported anonymously. The findings will be published in compliance with reporting guidelines for survey research. Discussion - This study will be the first to provide fundamental information concerning Saudi females university students SRH knowledge and information needs.King Abdullah Scholarship Program, Saudi Arabi

Numerical analysis for remote identification of materials with magnetic characteristics

There is a variety of methods used for remote sensing of objects such as acoustic, ground penetration radar detection, electromagnetic induction spectroscopy, infrared imaging, thermal neutron activation, core four-pole resonance, neutron backscattering, X-ray backscattering, and magnetic anomaly. The method that has to be used can be determined by the type of material, geographical location (underground or water), etc. Recent studies have been concentrated on the improvement of the criteria such as sensing distances, accuracy, and power consumption. In this paper, anomalies created by materials with magnetic characteristics at the perpendicular component of the Earth magnetic field have been detected by using a KMZ51 anisotropic magnetoresistive sensor with high sensitivity and low power consumption, and also, the effects of physical properties of materials on magnetic anomaly have been investigated. By analyzing the graphics obtained by 2-D motion of the sensor over the material, the most appropriate mathematical curves and formulas have been determined. Based on the physical properties of the magnetic material, the variations of the variables constituting the formulas of the curves have been analyzed. The contribution of this paper is the use of the results of these analyses for the purpose of identification of an unknown magnetic material. This is a new approach for the detection and determination of materials with magnetic characteristics by sensing the variation at the perpendicular component of the Earth magnetic field. The identification process has been explained in detail in this paper. © 2011 IEEE