X-Ray Barrier Estimation - A Case Study of the General Radiography Room of a Major Nigerian Teaching Hospital

Background: The observation that the designing rules and calculations on shielding barrier thickness estimation for most general radiographic rooms are not being practised made the evaluation of the already existing shielding barrier of the general Radiography Room of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika - Zaria to ascertain its shielding adequacy very necessary.Materials and Methods: The General Radiography Room with an area of 6.36m x 5m houses a Silhouette General X-ray machine; model MS-185N with serial number 0877 manufactured by General Electric (GE) Medical Systems in September, 2004. The evaluation was based on the method by NCRP Report No. 147, and used the number of patients examined in this room per week for shielding calculations.Results: The results showed that the barrier thickness required varied from 0.10 to 0.46mm of lead for the secondary barriers and 1.36mm of lead for the primary barrier. The ratio of the calculated to the current (already contructed) barrier thickness ranged from 0.09 to 0.23 for the secondary barriers and 0.68for the primary barrier .Conclusion: Based on the results from this study, the shielding barrier already provided in the General Radiography Room of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika - Zaria is adequate and in the event of public access to the surrounding area, the dose rates are at acceptable limits

Financing Education in Nigeria for National Development

The expansion and funding of education have attracted much interest both in the past and in recent times. Increased concern about rising costs is leading to the search and ways of reducing costs and expenditure. Economists have become interested in the sources of funding education, and are currently suggesting alternative avenues for financing the industry. The problem facing the education sector has led to many agitations for increased funding of education by labour unions and other concerned bodies in Nigeria higher education system. These unions have been consistent with their demands, citing decay of infrastructural facilities in our educational institutions, from primary to tertiary levels, vis-à-vis poor library facilities, empty laboratories, congestion in lecture halls and student hostels. They have in different forms and releases, charged the various governments of disobeying the UNESCO directive that member countries of the United Nations should allocate a minimum of 26 percent of their annual budgets to the educational sector. The challenge here is to fashion out appropriate funding initiatives that will generate benefit to the household, firm, the government and the rest of the world. Consequently, the study examines the Nigeria education financing including investment and accountability. Keywords: Funding Education; National Development; Annual Budget; Education Development DOI: 10.7176/JPID/51-06 Publication date: November 30th 2019

Gr\"uneisen parameter as an entanglement compass

The Gr\"uneisen ratio $\Gamma$, i.e., the singular part of the ratio of thermal expansion to the specific heat, has been broadly employed to explore both finite-$T$ and quantum critical points (QCPs). For a genuine quantum phase transition (QPT), thermal fluctuations are absent and thus the thermodynamic $\Gamma$ cannot be employed. We propose a quantum analogue to $\Gamma$ that computes entanglement as a function of a tuning parameter and show that QPTs take place only for quadratic non-diagonal Hamiltonians. We showcase our approach using the quantum 1D Ising model with transverse field and Kane's quantum computer. The slowing down of the dynamics and thus the ``creation of mass'' close to any QCP/QPT is also discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, comments are wellcome

Correlates of caregiving burden in schizophrenia:A cross-sectional, comparative analysis from India

Schizophrenia is a global mental health issue that has serious implications not only for the person with the diagnosis, but for caregivers as well. In Asian societies, the family tends to be the “natural” caregiver in such situations and the caregiving function is usually shouldered by parents or the spouse. Asian communities tend to be more closely knit, and it would be expected that more social support would be available to those facing distressing circumstances such as managing the demands of a person with mental illness. This study seeks to explore the perceived burden in family caregivers of persons diagnosed with schizophrenia, the coping strategies that come into play, as well as the extent of social support available to them. Standardized instruments were administered to collect data at a teaching cum treatment facility in south India. A quantitative methodology was used to analyze cross-sectional data from 75 primary caregivers of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and a reference group of caregivers of patients with general medical ailments. Results indicate high levels of burden, low social support, and poor coping in the caregivers of people with schizophrenia than the reference group. Implications for intervention with caregivers are also discussed in this article

EFFECT OF OPEN DUMPS ON SOME ENGINEERING AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF SOIL

Solid waste open dumps are sited indiscriminately in Nigeria and are always potential hazards to health and sources of groundwater pollution. The study investigates the effects of three open dumps on some engineering and chemical soil properties, with soils of similar layering located about 40 meters away from the dump used as control. No regular trend was established on the distribution of the parameters along the soil strata. In order to determine whether there are significant differences between the characteristics at different dumps and control soil layers, a statistical test of hypothesis was carried out. The values of the specific gravity, plasticity index, maximum density, permeability, iron, lead and zinc were higher in the soil under the dumps than in the control. The values of the liquid limits and the optimum moisture content were lower in the soil under the dump sites. The results indicate the needs for proper site investigation before solid waste dumps are selected

Farro 57 Rice Cultivar: A Comparative Study of the Nutritional Composition of its Parboiled Milled Rice, Brown Rice and Germinated Brown Rice

This work analyzed the nutritional composition of germinated brown rice (GBR)  produced from FARRO 57 rice cultivar and compared it with that of ungerminated brown rice (UBR) and ungerminated parboiled milled/white rice (UWR) from the same cultivar which were used as controls. The aim was to evaluate and compare the nutritional composition of UBR, UWR and GBR of the rice cultivar. The experimental design used was a completely randomized design. GBR was produced by soaking brown rice grains in distilled water for 24 h and then made to germinate in a laboratory incubator at 35° C for 12, 24 and 36 h. The parameters determined included proximate composition, energy value, minerals, vitamins, total starch, amylose and total reducing sugar contents and they were determined in triplicates. It was found that GBR had significantly higher contents of protein (14.54-15.01%), ash (3.36.98%), total dietary fibre (9.23-9.31), phosphorus (130.55-187.15 mg/100 g), iron (6.22-9.94 mg/100 g), calcium (455.0-560.0 mg/100 g), zinc (2.51-2.72 mg/100 g), selenium (92.10-107.50 µg/100 g), vitamin B2 (2.35-2.92 mg/100 g) and vitamin E (1.82-2.68 mg/100g) than UBR and UWR. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between the contents of vitamins A (19.45-19.72 IU), B1 (0.33-0.34 mg/100g) and B6 (1.00-1.10 mg/100g) of GBR and UBR samples, however they were all significantly higher than that of UWR. The GBR also had significantly lower amount of total carbohydrate (64.21-71.09%), total starch (54.91-60.92%), amylose (22.05-28.14%), and total reducing sugar (5.14-11.23%) than UBR and UWR. Amongst the GBR samples, the ash, protein, and the minerals increased with increase in duration of germination while the total carbohydrate, starch and amylose decreased with increase in duration of germination. GBR was recommended over UBR and UWR due to its optimum levels of the nutrients