Investigation into House-Hold Energy Consumption in Saki, Southwestern Nigeria

Energy is a major means of sustaining life hence It’s effects on nation’s economic development at both micro and macro levels. The dynamics of changes in the energy demand and supply patterns can be properly monitored through appropriate evaluation of consumption rate of available energy for effective planning. The main selection criterion considered in this study for the selection of household energy for cooking and heating, lighting, entertainment, refrigeration, and so on is population density. Energy sources considered in this investigation are electricity, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), diesel fuel, kerosene, firewood, liquefied natural gas (LNG), charcoal and solar cells. Energy consumption for individual in a family per day per zone to their average level of income per zone were investigated to establish sources, supply, and availability in the prevailing situation of things in the study area. The result of the study indicates that 70.81% of household energy is from biomass which is very disastrous to the environment. Not less than 29.185 % and 0,004766 % of energy were obtained from fossil fuel and electricity respectively. It is evident that residents in the study area depend highly on biomass as source of household energy and much less on electricity. The result of this study have open up the ground for development of predictive model for estimation of daily household energy requirements (DHER) for Saki dwellers and for rural development plan for the area under stud

Towards Adequate Policy Enhancement: An AI-Driven Decision Tree Model for Efficient Recognition and Classification of EPA Status via Multi-Emission Parameters

Accurate and timely evaluation and assessment of emission data and its impact on environmental status has been a key challenge due to the conventional manual approach utilized for independently computing most emission parameters. To resolve this long-standing issue, we proposed an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven Decision Tree model to adequately classify Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) status based on multiple Emission Parameters. The model's performance was systematically evaluated using multiple emission parameters obtained from a two-stroke motorcycle dataset collected in Nigeria across various metrics such as K-S Statistics, Confusion Matrix, Correlation Heat Map, Decision Tree, Validation Curve, and Threshold Plot. The K-S Statistics plot's experimental results showed a considerable correlation between HC, CO, and the target variable, with values ranging from 0.75-0.80. At the same time, CO2 and O2 do not correlate with the target variable with values between 0.00 and 0.09. The Confusion Matrix revealed that the proposed model has an overall accuracy of 99.9% with 481 true positive predictions and 75 true negative predictions, indicating the effectiveness of the proposed AI-driven model. In conclusion, our proposed AI-driven model can effectively classify EPA status based on multiple emission parameters with high accuracy, which may spur positive advancement in policy enhancement for proper environmental management

The effect of air-fuel ratio on tailpipe exhaust emission of motorcycles

This article presents the actual AFR of the vehicular emission from the tailpipe data of motorcycles with petrol engine in Southwest Nigeria. It also presents the ratio between the actual air-fuel ratio (AFRactual) and the ideal/ stoichiometric air-fuel ratio (AFRideal) known as the equivalence air-fuel ratio or lambda (λ). This was compared with the expected value for lambda by the catalytic technology for exhaust gases emission, which is 1 (± 5%). In this study, over 95% of the sampled motorcycles have higher lambda values than expected, thereby emitting very high concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC), and carbon dioxide (CO2). The Portable, Hand- Held, battery-operated Kane automotive 4-gas analyser with detector tube (Model Auto 4-1) was used to measure the automobile emissions. The air-fuel ratio is a significant indicator and very important measure for gasoline engine performance controlling and tuning, and anti vehicles exhaust emissions pollution reasons [1]. Internal combustion (IC) gasoline fuelled engines exhaust gases emission depend heavily and mainly on the air-fuel ratio. For a gasoline fuelled engine, carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) exhaust gases emission are significantly influenced by air-fuel ratio. CO and HC are majorly generated or produced with rich air–fuel mixture, while NOx with lean air-fuel mixtures which mean that there is no fixed air-fuel mixture for which it can obtain the minimum for all exhaust gases emission [2]. This study can help in reducing fuel consumption, improving the quality of fuel combustion and reducing vehicle exhaust emissions in Nigeria

Utilization of Poly (ethylene terephthalate) Waste and Seashell (Senilia senilis) in the Production of Roof Tiles

Pollution has been a vital issue, especially in developing countries like Nigeria. Polyethylene terephthalate (pet) bottles from its introduction into the economy, has been a major pollutant of the environment, culminating a nuisance to the environment and unsafe habitat to human health. Water channels such as rivers and oceans are not exempted, as marine animals are also at risk of this due to the dumping of waste into our waterways. The utilization of waste pet bottles and seashell in the production of roof tiles will go a long way in the encouragement of proper disposal and management of waste. From this study, a mixture of pet bottles, river sand, and seashells in varying proportions were used to make roofing tiles. The composition with the highest strength is seen to be the P50b, which has 50% pet waste, 25% Senilia senilis, and 25% River sand. It has a smoother surface in comparison with the othe

BACTERIAL ISOLATES ASSOCIATED WITH PELVIC INFLAMMATORY DISEASE AMONG FEMALE PATIENTS ATTENDING SOME HOSPITALS IN ABUJA, NIGERIA.

Background: Pelvic inflammatory disease refers to any infection in the female lower reproductive tract that spreads to the upper reproductive tract. The disease comprises a spectrum of inflammatory disorders of the upper female genital tract, including any combination of endometritis, salpingitis, tubo-ovarian abscess and pelvic peritonitis. PID is not a notifiable disease in most countries, so accurate statistics are not available. This situation is not in any way different here in Nigeria and more so in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja where this research was conducted, there had never been any published report so far on PID. It therefore became pertinent that such studies be carried out to evaluate the bacterial organisms which may be associated with the disease in this part of Nigeria so that health care providers could take a better look at this affliction in women. Materials and Methods: Endocervical swabs totalling 100 were aseptically collected from patients with confirmed Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID), attending some hospitals in Abuja, Nigeria for detection of bacterial pathogens based on cultural and biochemical characterisation tests. Antibiogram was also conducted on the identified bacterial isolates. Results: Out of the 100 samples analysed, 43% yielded pure cultures of bacterial isolates, 2% yielded mixed cultures while no bacterial growths were recorded from the remaining 55% samples. Organisms encountered were Staphylococcus aureus (16%), Escherichia coli (10%), Streptococcus faecalis (8%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (4%), Streptococcus pyogenes (3%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (3%), Proteus rettgeri (2%) and Proteus mirabilis (1%). The highest percentage occurrence of pathogenic isolates was observed in polygamous married patients (90%). The age group most affected falls within the mean age 30.5 years (68%) while the least affected group falls within the mean age 40.5 years (5%). There was a significant difference in the acquisition of PID in relation to marital status (P 0.05). Antibiogram patterns of pathogenic isolates revealed varied resistance to most of the antibiotics employed. Cefotaxime (a new generation cephalosporin antibiotic) was established in this study as the best antimicrobial agent for treatment of PID due to Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria isolated from the women examined. Conclusion: In conclusion, Pelvic inflammatory disease is a major health problem in developed or developing countries of the world. PID is not a notifiable disease, as accurate statistics on disease prevalence are rarely available. There is therefore no doubt thousands of young women have salpingitis every year and their sheer number makes it an important health problem. PID hence can be said to be a very serious complication of sexually transmitted disease which should be critically and promptly handled by healthcare providers. The right type sample should be aseptically collected and be appropriately handled for laboratory investigation. Treatment of PID should be initiated as soon as the presumptive diagnosis has been made. Immediate administration of antibiotics has been effective in the long-term sequelae associated with PID, especially new generation antibiotics, such as cefotaxime as recorded in this study

Recent visible light and metal free strategies in [2+2] and [4+2] photocycloadditions

When aiming to synthesize molecules with elevated molecular complexity starting from relatively simple starting materials, photochemical transformations represent an open avenue to circumvent analogous multistep procedures. Specifically, light-mediated cycloadditions remain as powerful tools to generate new bonds begotten from non-very intuitive disconnections, that alternative thermal protocols would not offer. In response to the current trend in both industrial and academic research pointing towards green and sustainable processes, several strategies that meet these requirements are currently available in the literature. This Minireview summarizes [2+2] and [4+2] photocycloadditions that do not require the use of metal photocatalysts by means of alternative strategies. It is segmented according to the cycloaddition type in order to give the reader a friendly approach and we primarily focus on the most recent developments in the field carried out using visible light, a general overview of the mechanism in each case is offered as wellFinancial support was provided by the European Research Council (ERC-CoG, Contract Number: 647550), the Spanish Government (RTI2018-095038-B-I00), the ‘Comunidad de Madrid’ and European Structural Funds (S2018/NMT-4367). R. I. R thanks Fundación Carolina for a graduate fellowshi

A year of genomic surveillance reveals how the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic unfolded in Africa

[Figure: see text]

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

Investment in SARS-CoV-2 sequencing in Africa over the past year has led to a major increase in the number of sequences generated, now exceeding 100,000 genomes, used to track the pandemic on the continent. Our results show an increase in the number of African countries able to sequence domestically, and highlight that local sequencing enables faster turnaround time and more regular routine surveillance. Despite limitations of low testing proportions, findings from this genomic surveillance study underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic and shed light on the distinct dispersal dynamics of Variants of Concern, particularly Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron, on the continent. Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve, while the continent faces many emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Emergence and spread of two SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest in Nigeria.

Identifying the dissemination patterns and impacts of a virus of economic or health importance during a pandemic is crucial, as it informs the public on policies for containment in order to reduce the spread of the virus. In this study, we integrated genomic and travel data to investigate the emergence and spread of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.318 and B.1.525 (Eta) variants of interest in Nigeria and the wider Africa region. By integrating travel data and phylogeographic reconstructions, we find that these two variants that arose during the second wave in Nigeria emerged from within Africa, with the B.1.525 from Nigeria, and then spread to other parts of the world. Data from this study show how regional connectivity of Nigeria drove the spread of these variants of interest to surrounding countries and those connected by air-traffic. Our findings demonstrate the power of genomic analysis when combined with mobility and epidemiological data to identify the drivers of transmission, as bidirectional transmission within and between African nations are grossly underestimated as seen in our import risk index estimates

A year of genomic surveillance reveals how the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic unfolded in Africa.

The progression of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic in Africa has so far been heterogeneous, and the full impact is not yet well understood. In this study, we describe the genomic epidemiology using a dataset of 8746 genomes from 33 African countries and two overseas territories. We show that the epidemics in most countries were initiated by importations predominantly from Europe, which diminished after the early introduction of international travel restrictions. As the pandemic progressed, ongoing transmission in many countries and increasing mobility led to the emergence and spread within the continent of many variants of concern and interest, such as B.1.351, B.1.525, A.23.1, and C.1.1. Although distorted by low sampling numbers and blind spots, the findings highlight that Africa must not be left behind in the global pandemic response, otherwise it could become a source for new variants