Determination of optically stimulated luminescence dosimetric characteristics and suitability for entrance surface dose assessment in diagnostic X-ray examinations

The availability of Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dosimeter system developed by Landauer Inc. (Glenwood IL) has greatly improved radiation dosimetry application in the medical field. Recent studies with OSL dosimeters (nanoDots) gave much emphases to patient radiation exposure in radiotherapy but ignoring the potential risks from radiographic examinations. This study focused on the measurement of entrance surface dose (ESD) resulting from radiographic examination. Monitoring procedures have been developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to estimate ESD, while considering exposure parameters and patient’s characteristics. However, dosimetric properties of the OSL system must be characterized to ascertain its suitability for ESD measurements in medical radiography due to energy dependence and over-response factors of the Al2O3 material. This thesis consists of three phases: 1) evaluating stability of the new OSL dosimetry system, 2) characterizing the nanoDots in radiographic energy range from 40 kV to 150 kV with typical doses ranging from 0 to 20 mGy, and 3) assessing suitability of the nanoDots for ESD measurement in routine X-ray examinations. The dosimetric characteristics of the nanoDots in the above energy range are presented in this study, including repeatability, reproducibility, signal depletion, element correction factor, linearity, angular and energy dependence, and dose measurement accuracy. Experimental results showed repeatability of below 5% and reproducibility of less than 2%. OSL signals after sequential readouts were reduced by approximately 0.5% per readout and having good linearity for doses between 5 – 20 mGy. The nanoDots OSL dosimeter showed significant angular and energy dependence in this energy range, and corresponding energy correction factors were determined in the range of 0.76 – 1.12. ESDs were determined in common diagnostic X-ray examinations using three different methods including direct (measured on phantom/patient) and indirect (without phantom) measurements with nanoDots OSL dosimeters, and CALDose_X 5.0 software calculations. Results from direct and indirect ESD measurements showed good agreement within relative uncertainties of 5.9% and 12%, respectively, in accordance with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61674 specifications. However, the measured results were below ESDs calculated with CALDose_X 5.0 software. Measured eye and gonad doses were found to be significant compared to ESDs during anterior-posterior (AP) abdomen and AP skull examinations, respectively. The results obtained in this research work indicate the suitability of utilizing nanoDots OSL dosimeter for entrance surface dose assessment during diagnostic X-ray examinations

Determination of optically stimulated luminescence dosimetric characteristics and suitability for entrance surface dose assessement in diagnostic x-ray examinations

The availability of Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dosimeter system developed by Landauer Inc. (Glenwood IL) has greatly improved radiation dosimetry application in the medical field. Recent studies with OSL dosimeters (nanoDots) gave much emphases to patient radiation exposure in radiotherapy but ignoring the potential risks from radiographic examinations. This study focused on the measurement of entrance surface dose (ESD) resulting from radiographic examination. Monitoring procedures have been developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to estimate ESD, while considering exposure parameters and patient’s characteristics. However, dosimetric properties of the OSL system must be characterized to ascertain its suitability for ESD measurements in medical radiography due to energy dependence and over-response factors of the Al2O3 material. This thesis consists of three phases: 1) evaluating stability of the new OSL dosimetry system, 2) characterizing the nanoDots in radiographic energy range from 40 kV to 150 kV with typical doses ranging from 0 to 20 mGy, and 3) assessing suitability of the nanoDots for ESD measurement in routine X-ray examinations. The dosimetric characteristics of the nanoDots in the above energy range are presented in this study, including repeatability, reproducibility, signal depletion, element correction factor, linearity, angular and energy dependence, and dose measurement accuracy. Experimental results showed repeatability of below 5% and reproducibility of less than 2%. OSL signals after sequential readouts were reduced by approximately 0.5% per readout and having good linearity for doses between 5 – 20 mGy. The nanoDots OSL dosimeter showed significant angular and energy dependence in this energy range, and corresponding energy correction factors were determined in the range of 0.76 – 1.12. ESDs were determined in common diagnostic X-ray examinations using three different methods including direct (measured on phantom/patient) and indirect (without phantom) measurements with nanoDots OSL dosimeters, and CALDose_X 5.0 software calculations. Results from direct and indirect ESD measurements showed good agreement within relative uncertainties of 5.9% and 12%, respectively, in accordance with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61674 specifications. However, the measured results were below ESDs calculated with CALDose_X 5.0 software. Measured eye and gonad doses were found to be significant compared to ESDs during anterior-posterior (AP) abdomen and AP skull examinations, respectively. The results obtained in this research work indicate the suitability of utilizing nanoDots OSL dosimeter for entrance surface dose assessment during diagnostic X-ray examinations

The practice and challenges of e-Government in Nigeria in the 21st century

This paper investigates the state of the present condition of e-government commitment in Nigeria. It also, examines the difficulties encountered in the implementation process.Layne and Lee (2001) “Stages of growth theory” was adopted to explain the position of Nigeria in the implementation and the challenges it faced on e-government.To do this,this paper used secondary data as a source to collect different articles and report.This paper finds that while e-government is present in Nigeria, it is still in its initial stage.Not only have that, the environment lacked many prerequisites for the survival and continued maintenance of e-governance due to many factors such as inadequate electricity, technical expertise etcetera.It is therefore suggested that both the government and the stakeholders should take it up as a challenge to find quick and lasting solutions to them. There must also be political will and government should have its administrative staff retrained in IT to properly manage the facilities and infrastructure necessary for e-government

Determination of optically stimulated luminescence dosimetric characteristics and suitability for entrance surface dose assessement in diagnostic x-ray examinations

The availability of Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dosimeter system developed by Landauer Inc. (Glenwood IL) has greatly improved radiation dosimetry application in the medical field. Recent studies with OSL dosimeters (nanoDots) gave much emphases to patient radiation exposure in radiotherapy but ignoring the potential risks from radiographic examinations. This study focused on the measurement of entrance surface dose (ESD) resulting from radiographic examination. Monitoring procedures have been developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to estimate ESD, while considering exposure parameters and patient’s characteristics. However, dosimetric properties of the OSL system must be characterized to ascertain its suitability for ESD measurements in medical radiography due to energy dependence and over-response factors of the Al2O3 material. This thesis consists of three phases: 1) evaluating stability of the new OSL dosimetry system, 2) characterizing the nanoDots in radiographic energy range from 40 kV to 150 kV with typical doses ranging from 0 to 20 mGy, and 3) assessing suitability of the nanoDots for ESD measurement in routine X-ray examinations. The dosimetric characteristics of the nanoDots in the above energy range are presented in this study, including repeatability, reproducibility, signal depletion, element correction factor, linearity, angular and energy dependence, and dose measurement accuracy. Experimental results showed repeatability of below 5% and reproducibility of less than 2%. OSL signals after sequential readouts were reduced by approximately 0.5% per readout and having good linearity for doses between 5 – 20 mGy. The nanoDots OSL dosimeter showed significant angular and energy dependence in this energy range, and corresponding energy correction factors were determined in the range of 0.76 – 1.12. ESDs were determined in common diagnostic X-ray examinations using three different methods including direct (measured on phantom/patient) and indirect (without phantom) measurements with nanoDots OSL dosimeters, and CALDose_X 5.0 software calculations. Results from direct and indirect ESD measurements showed good agreement within relative uncertainties of 5.9% and 12%, respectively, in accordance with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61674 specifications. However, the measured results were below ESDs calculated with CALDose_X 5.0 software. Measured eye and gonad doses were found to be significant compared to ESDs during anterior-posterior (AP) abdomen and AP skull examinations, respectively. The results obtained in this research work indicate the suitability of utilizing nanoDots OSL dosimeter for entrance surface dose assessment during diagnostic X-ray examinations

Ethno-Religious Factor and the Menace of Election Violence in Nigeria

Elections in Nigeria have been characterized by high scale of electoral malpractices, money politics, electoral violence and the use of ethno-religious divide strategy by political elite in order to influence the majority votes, claimed and announced as authentic election winners, these phenomenon’s has dominate Nigerian electoral process since the return of democracy in Nigeria during 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015 elections. Electoral violence is one of the strategies employed by Nigerian politicians during electioneering period to win election by illegal and dubious means. Desperate challenges of democratic governance operations and poor attitude of our leaders in Nigeria whose fails to meet the public demand of protecting lives and property as well as citizens welfare provision, the power drunk politicians often sponsor unemployed youths and stark illiterates to carry out assaults on their perceived political opponents with a view to manipulating election results to their own advantage. Therefore, this paper discusses electoral violence in the context of religion and its implication for sustainable development. Since electoral violence has been the bane of political stability and development in Nigeria. The researcher has uses secondary source of data to reviewed various literature on the subject matter to investigate the problem of election violence connecting it with religious or ethnic factor differences and used Karl Marx’s dialectical materialism theory on the discussion of the problems of election violence in Nigeria. This paper has made an in-depth analysis of electoral violence in Nigeria with particular focus on the Fourth Republic. The  paper was of the view that right  application of religious  teaching, moral values is considered to be a veritable tool for ensuring violence free elections, which will guaranteed  development of democracy in Nigeria. Keywords: Electoral Violence, Electoral Security, Religious and Ethnic Difference DOI: 10.7176/JCSD/59-04 Publication date:May 31st 202

Assessment of Mothers’ Attitudes to Children Care and its Effect on Breast Feeding in Nutrition Units of Shinkafi Local Government Zamfara State Nigeria

Breastfeeding has been the natural and normal means of feeding infants. Breastfeeding is universally acknowledged as providing health benefits for mothers and infants, decreasing infant mortality and morbidity particularly in developing countries, but also in more affluent societies. The research was retrospective cross sectional survey that assessed the mothers’ attitude to children care and its effect on breast feeding. Simple random sampling was used in selecting four out of six nutrition units. Consecutive sampling was applied in selecting the sample of the research, and the data were collected in three month period. A twenty two items structured questionnaire was used in obtaining information from the respondents. Descriptive statistic was presented in percentage using tables and chi-square statistical tool was used in answering the research hypotheses using SPSS version 20 at 95% confidence interval (CI). The result shows that 58.4% were not practicing exclusive breast feeding and 50.4% of their children had not received due immunizations. Majority of the respondents (47.4%) stopped breast feeding due to child sickness and 31.4% said was due to assumed lack of breast milk. Hypotheses testing show that attitudes to children’s feeding have no effect on children’s illness, and attitude to mothers’ illness has effect on children’s illness. It is concluded that there is need for more effort in improving the mothers’ attitude toward the proper care of children. Mothers need to be educated on exclusive breast feeding and immunization to children. Mothers should be informed that sucking of breast by the child greatly help in production and draining of milk; and lack of sucking could cause the milk production to cease. There is need for teaching mothers on how to prevent children from being affected with the mothers’ illnesses. As most of the mothers in the area are not attending ANC, it is useful to apply house to house campaign to create awareness and pass information on the advantages of proper child breast feeding and disadvantages of suboptimal breast feeding. Keywords: assessment, breast feeding, children care, effect, mothers’ attitude, Nigeria, nutrition unit

Biochemical Assessment of Pregnancy-Related Physiological Changes in Renal Function

This study was aimed at determining biochemical markers of renal function in pregnant women in Kano State, Nigeria. Urea, electrolytes and creatinine were estimated from 45 pregnant women and 45 non pregnant apparently healthy, age-matched controls.  The result of the study showed significant difference (P<0.01) in urea, creatinine and bicarbonate levels between the pregnant and non- pregnant women but no significant difference (p>0.01) was observed in sodium, potassium and chloride levels between the two groups. Studies within the trimesters showed significant difference (p<0.05) in urea levels between the control group of the 1st and 2nd trimesters. Creatinine levels in the 2nd trimester (43.20±12.3) and 3rd trimester (41.40±5.45) were found to be significantly lower (p<0.05) compared to the control group (55.84±16.17). A significant difference in creatinine levels (p<0.05) between the 1st and 2nd and the 1st and 3rd trimesters was also recorded. The mean difference in bicarbonate levels in the 1st (22.33±1.84), 2nd (21.80±1.37) and 3rd(21.73±1.79) trimesters and the -control group (26.09±2.08) was significantly lower (p<0.05) with no significant difference within the trimesters. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) observed in sodium, potassium and chloride level between the control groups and the trimesters of pregnancy. The result obtained is indicative of normal renal function in the study groups

Effect of a Computer Mediated Systems Teaching Approach on Attitude Towards Mathematics of Engineering Students

This paper reports a study which investigated the effect of a Computer Mediated Systems Teaching Approach (CMSTA), used to teach mathematics to engineering students in a Nigerian Polytechnic, on the students’ attitude towards the subject. Specifically, the study determined (a) the Attitude Towards Mathematics (ATM) disposition of the students taught mathematics using the CMSTA and those not taught with the same approach and (b) which gender’s ATM dispositions is more favourable amongst the students taught mathematics using the CMSTA. From a sample of 485 subjects (with 274 in the experimental and 211 in control groups) initially targeted to be used, 470 subjects (with 267 in the experimental and 203 in control groups) and 445 subjects (with 256 in the experimental and 189 in control groups) were eventually used for the pretest and posttest respectively. A four stage procedure was adopted for the experiment where treatment administration lasted for 12 weeks.  Pretest and posttest administration of the Attitude Towards Mathematics Inventory (ATMI) on the subjects yielded the data used. While significant difference was found between the ATM disposition of the experimental and control groups, none was found between the male and female students taught mathematics using the CMSTA. It was concluded that the CMSTA was able to foster the subjects’ ATM positively. It was therefore recommended that mathematics teacher/lectures in Nigerian Polytechnics in particular and other tertiary institutions in general should (a) adopt/adapt the CMSTA to teach and (b) endeavor to understand how Information and Communication Technologies help the goals of teaching mathematics in their institutions so as to enable them take advantage of it. Keywords: Computer Mediated Systems Teaching Approach, Attitude Towards Mathematics

Ethical supply chains: analysis, practices and performance measures

Ethics has been studied in numerous disciplines and its application to various practices has been investigated over the years such as in medicine and law. This has been relatively recently extended into the business arena, and has become a matter of growing interest for many companies. It has led to questions concerning what constitutes ethical behaviour, to what extent ethical practices should be adopted and what benefits a company may derive from its adoption. There are numerous processes involved in the transformation of a product from source to consumer, and these must be managed to produce an optimal balance of business requirements, specifically profitability, and a consideration of the wider impacts they may have or make. The supply chain has become vital to organisational success that companies now compete as supply chains rather than as individual entities. Therefore the ethical conduct of the supply chains has also begun to be scrutinised, both from an internal business performance perspective, and from the increasing concerns held by the numerous stakeholders of the organisation. In light of these developments, this paper explores the notion of ethics as it applies to supply chains. It also examines supply chain ethical practices and demonstrates that there is an empirical relationship between ethical practices and performance. The results show that ethical practices have positive impacts on the performance of the supply chain. Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd