Optimization of thermoluminescence response of copper doped zinc lithium borate glass co-doped with Na2O

Establishing the basic procedures that will influence the enhancement of the TL yield of a phosphor is paramount in the issue of dosimetry. Melt quenching method was adopted in synthesizing lithium borate glass modified with ZnO, doped with CuO and codoped with Na2O. The structural and optical properties of zinc lithium borate and some TL properties of copper doped zinc lithium borate were reported in our previous works. The amorphous nature of the prepared glasses was confirmed by x-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). Physical properties of the glass were obtained via Archimedes principle. The copper doped zinc lithium borate was co-doped with different concentration of Na2O (0.025 mol % to 0.1 mol %). The glasses were irradiated with 4 Gy dose of gamma rays using 60Co gamma cell. The highest TL response was recorded against 0.05 mol% concentration of Na2O. The best settings for TLD reading of the proposed TLD were determined. The optimal annealing temperature and time for this composition was found to be 300 oC and 50 min respectively. The best heating rate at which the new TLD can be readout was 3 oC S-1

The Impact of Corruption on the Socio- Economic Development of Sierra Leone, a Case Study Bo City

This work was carried out to examine the impacts of corruption on the Socio-economic Development of Sierra Leone, a case study Bo city. The findings revealed that corruption increases inequality, decreases popular accountability and political representativeness, and thus produces rising frustration and hardship among citizens .In addition to the rise of an underground economy and the high social costs associated with corruption, its adverse consequences on income distribution, corruption investment, the government budget and on economic reforms are highlighted in this paper. This study employs a cross sectional design with diverse methods of research approach containing questionnaire. A stratified sampling technique was used in the selection of the respondents. Eighty (80) questionnaires were administered to eighty respondents in the study community.A Purposive randomized sampling technique was used to select respondents in Bo District, Bo community due to the fact that, they have requisite information about the issues involved in the study. The data generated were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics and results were presented in tables, frequency, graphs and charts. The major findings discovered as effects of corruption were: public sector dysfunctionality affects socio-economic development in Bo city, failure in infrastructure and community development and frustration and cynicism. A high number of respondents, according to the study revealed that, officials in Bo city faced so many challenges. Some of the challenges highlighted by the respondents were: funding or financial issues, poor leadership, corruption and administrative inefficiency and lack equipment to accomplish projects.The study further revealed that, majority of the respondents were dissatisfied on how the national stakeholders, detective agencies and state institutions handle reported cases of corruption in Sierra Leone, for which several recommendations were given, key among which included the need for Government to review of policies to improve the working condition of public officials in the community. Government and other partners in development should provide adequate resources and equal opportunities in the country. The administrative heads should fight corruption in government administration. Laws must be made more stringent so that corrupt administrators or perpetrators do not get away easily.This study will serve as an instrumental tool capable of enhancing the knowledge and understanding of Sierra Leoneans on the effects of corruption on the Socio-economic Development of Sierra Leone. Such information will be vital in creating the possibility for people to deviate from the act of corruption

The Impacts of Community Radio Stations on National Development; a Case Study of Bo City

This study examined the Impacts of Community Radio Stations on National Development, using Bo city as a case study. Findings were generated in line with the general aim which is to investigate the impacts of community radio stations on national development, as well as the following specific objectives: Conceptualization of community radio stations as tool for national development Functions of community radio stations on development policies Influence of community radio stations on public opinions and information dissemination Roles played by community radio stations during COVID-19 pandemic Recommendations on how to mitigate the problems associated with community radio stations The findings affirmed that majority were aware of the concept of community radio stations, and they believed that the stations performed functions such as informing, educating and entertaining the public. Additionally, majority of the respondents were of the view that community radio stations affect public opinions greatly, by influencing their political decisions and their choices towards certain products through advertisement. Thus, it was also revealed that community radio stations played key roles in fighting COV ID-19 pandemic, by reporting or updating the public about COVID-19 cases, providing the opportunity for medical practitioners to discuss issues around the pandemic, and showing pictures and graphics relating to the preventive measures of the pandemic respectively. It was also recommended that the government and other stakeholders should support community radio stations with adequate resources in order to enable them function effectively.The main purpose of community radio is to provide marginalized communities with access to a voice through the broadcasting channel of radio so they can express their concerns, interests and needs, promote and protect their cultures, traditions and heritages and determine their own development. For a community radio station to serve its purpose, members of a community need to be allowed access to participate in the day-to- day activities of a community radio station and have access to relevant information to better their circumstances. In order to obtain access to these resources, certain operational frameworks must be established and maintained

The Socio Economic Impact of Cultural Heretage on Sierra Leone: Acase of Brookfield , Freetown

Sierra Leone is arguably a country with massive and amiable cultural heritage assets which have greater bearing on the social and economic trajectory of the country. This heritage can be evident in terms of the country’s tangible culture such as buildings, monuments, landscapes, works of art, and artifacts, et al, intangible culture such as folklore, language, knowledge, and natural heritage including culturally significant landscapes, and biodiversity. Sierra Leone’s cultural heritage is a diverse blend influenced by the topography of the country and large amount of different ethnic groups inhibiting the country. The country and the people are well known for their friendliness and hospitality, with a relaxed pace on life. This Country’s cultural heritage makes it common to be entertained in hotels or restaurants, particularly business visitors.This study employed a cross sectional design with mixed methods of research approach involving questionnaire, and interviews. A purposive sampling technique was used in the selection of the respondents. A sample of eighty (80) respondents was selected purposively in the study areas. Questionnaires and in-depth interviews were used to solicit primary data from targeted population. The data generated were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics and results were presented in tables, frequency, graphs and charts. The following were the main findings of the research:Moreover, this study also concluded that there are a range of factors that hinder cultural heritage and this study concludes that lack of human capital on specialized preservation techniques is a major factor that hinders cultural heritage in Sierra Leone and that this can result into devaluation of country’s culture, decreased employment in cultural heritage sector, and most importantly, undergrowth of government’s foreign earnings.Findings in this study also indicated that stakeholders played diverse roles in promoting cultural heritage and such roles could be policy development role, protection and preservation role, funding role and most importantly, education role. This study concluded by providing recommendations for the protection and preservation of cultural heritage. The study recommends that government should build the human capital base on specialized preservation and conservation techniques; cultural heritage studies, archaeological, anthropology and museum education should be taught across all universities; strengthen partnership across the board to sustainably develop the heritage sector; vigorous educational campaign on the promotion of culture and to strengthen the regulatory framework to preserve cultural heritage. The study will help Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of government to have a clear understanding on the potential of Cultural Heritage to national development thereby -making government to pay more attention to the sector as an essential tool for massive revenue generation. It will also help government to have essential understandings on the factors that undermine the potential of cultural heritage to the socioeconomic development of Sierra Leone

Adsorptive Removal of Rhodamine B Dye from Aqueous Solution Using Raw Plantain Peel

The Adsorption capacity of raw plantain peel for Rhodamine B Dye in an aqueous solution has been studied using the batch optimization method. The adsorbent without any modification was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The results show that maximum adsorption capacity was obtained at the optimum levels of contact time (90 minutes at 16.5739mg/g) adsorbent dose (0.2g at 7.4815mg/g), initial dye concentration (60mg/L at 21.2024mg/g) and pH8 (24.5719mg/g). In order to investigate the mechanism of adsorption, kinetic data were modeled using the pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, Elovich, and Intraparticle diffusion. Among the kinetic models studied, the pseudo-second-order equation was the best applicable model to describe the adsorption process of the dye onto the adsorbent employed in this work. Equilibrium isotherm data were also analyzed using the Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and Dubinin-Raduskevich isotherms. The Freundlich isotherm model yielded a better result. Isotherm parameters have also been used to obtain the thermodynamic parameters such as Gibb’s free energy, enthalpy, and entropy of adsorption. These results show that raw dried plantain peel powder has the potential of a good low-cost adsorbent for the removal of this hazardous dye from wastewater, it also shows that raw dried plantain peel powder can be used as an absorbent for the removal of Rhodamine B (RB) from aqueous solution

Health hazards of abattoir effluents discharged from the Sokoto central abattoir, Nigeria

This study was undertaken to determine the level of water pollution that can be attributed to effluents discharged from the Sokoto Central abattoir. Both surface and well water samples from the abattoir and adjacent wells were investigated to determine their microbial and physicochemical properties. Samples were collected from five different spots that include; effluents from the abattoir where visceral organs are washed (sample point A), two wells located in the adjacent livestock market (sample point B and C), drainage outside the abattoir (sample point D) and another well downstream the abattoir used for irrigation farming (sample point E). The values for pH, were 7.2, 8.0, 7.5 and 6.8 for all the sampling sites respectively. Similarly, the values of nitrate and BOD recorded were all within the acceptable limit except for point A which had nitrate (60.0 mgl-1) and BOD (26.8 mgl-1) above the acceptable limit. While the total coliforms, for sampling point A and D were found to be very high. There was a significant difference in the quality of water from the studied samples in comparison with the acceptable standard especially with respect to total coliform, BOD, COD, and nitrates. The findings from this study indicate that abattoirs have the potential to contaminate and pollute water sources which may produce a detrimental effect on the quality of groundwater despite the sieving process. Hence, measures should be taken to prevent locating abattoirs in close proximity to human dwellings. Similarly, for the existing ones encroached by human habitation, effective pollution control measures such as treatment of hazardous waste and minimizing the use of chemicals for industrial and agricultural purposes should be taken in order to preserve the quality of groundwater and minimize the potential resultant health effect caused by such contaminants. Keywords: Abattoir effluents, Health hazards, Sokoto State, Water quality, Waste wate

Integrated evaluation of wet gas reservoir : minimizing volumetricuncertainties using dynamic analysis

There is a growing research effort to understand the most reliable approach in estimations ofoil and gas reserves, through different procedures such as the volumetric, Material Balance,Reservoir Simulation, Decline Curve Analysis (Production performance analysis), whichdepends on the understanding of the physical flow characterization of the formation, productiondata, and recently dynamic nature of reserves. While most researchers were motivated by staticnature of dry gas reserves and hence, their reserve estimations consider parameters typical ofsuch reservoirs, formations where associated gas is found has continued to be a challengeparticularly in sandstone reservoirs.In this study a novel approach of adopting integrated experimental and analytical techniques,using digital core flooding system to establish dynamic properties of the reserves was used incombination with analytical techniques including Volumetric, Decline Curve Analysis,Reservoir simulation and Material balance.Experimental study was conducted in phase I to determine rock properties, such as effectiveporosity, permeability and distribution of pore size, generally regarded as petrophysicalproperties, the core characterization measurement of the dimensions and weight wereperformed using the Vernier calliper, weight measurement balance.In Phase II PVT (Pressure, Volume and Temperature) analysis for gas composition and fluidproperties were also carried for a wet gas field case study (Ogba Essale). A sub set of thesample was flashed from reservoir condition to atmospheric condition (758.31 mmhg and 82.4f). The products (i.e. gas and oil) were analysed by gas chromatographic technique and thenmathematically recombined to obtain the reservoir fluid composition. Constant compositionexpansion (CCE) test, Constant volume depletion (CVD) test were performed at the reservoirtemperature of 224.6 f. multi-stage separation test was performed at the specified surfaceprocessing condition, the results were subsequently inputted for reserve evaluation into variousmethodPhase III Involved Modelling and computer simulation Static geologic models in Petrel andReservoir simulation models in Eclipse 100 and 300 were built and utilized to estimate thehydrocarbon volumes. Similarly, in this phase Declining Curve Analysis using Oil FieldManger (OFM), Material Balance and Volumetric calculations was carried out.Phase IV focused on Single Phase flow of Buff Bera using Navier-Stokes equations andDarcy`s law to describe single-phase gas transport and free gas at the pore spaces. The modelswere developed using water salinity representation of the wet gas field in the case study, tosimulate the performance of the natural gas reservoir in assessing the performance ofproduction from natural gas reservoir.Phase V: Core flooding for two-phase liquid movements under unsteady state or steady statecircumstances and single-phase gas steady-state experiments, was conducted.Phase VI involved the application of COMSOL-Physics, constitute the creation of a pore-scalefinite element mesh of sandstone core samples from SEM images and based on the numericalsimulation of sandstone at a pore-scale level based on experimental resultsiiiPhase 7: Results analysis and discussions: The findings indicated from the characterization(phase I) indicated for porosities of the respective core samples: Buff bera 24.55% and 20-22%,Castle gate 29.31% and 27-29%, Boise 30.35% and 28%, Bandera Grey 19.67 and 19-21%,and Grey Beira 20.18% and 18-21% for experimental and factory values respectively. Whilepermeabilities values indicated Buff Beira 458.1mD and 350-600mD, Castle gate 1434.8mDand 1300-1500mD, and Boise 2196.4mD and 2000-4000mD for experimental and factoryvalues respectively, the porosity and permeability values by the experiment deviated slightlyfrom the factory porosity values. The experimental result showed good agreement with theliterature data under dynamic conditions, subsequent data of the Buff Berea experiment resultwas implemented into COMSOL multi physics software to characterize gas transport of singlephase flow at pore scale level. Also, for this study, the Buff Bera values of porosity andpermeability were imputed for all the reservoir evaluation technique except for Reservoirsimulation of which porosity was estimated from the bulk density and sonic logs using averagegrain density of 2.65g/cc, 1.00g/cc and 0.85g/cc for fluid density, 53msec/ft. for average grainvelocity and 189msec/ft. For pore fluid velocity, the net sand of the reservoirs was estimatedby applying Petro-physical cut-off (vsh=0.52, porosity=0.12). The results from the aquifersalinity confirms that the higher the salinity of the aquifer the higher the natural gas productionand the lower the produced water as seen in the gwr vs time graph. there was a productionincrease of about 50% when 0 wt% salt encroached the reservoir compared to when 10 wt%Nacl. With this leading finding, a better characterisation of the natural gas reservoir will becarried out for adequate evaluation of the performance of the reservoirs in the phase II of thestudy.Consequently, 75.9132 MMSTB of oil and 2,188.54 BCF of gas was obtained from reservoirsimulation, do nothing case: an additional recovery for the field is about 30.23MMSTB and27.8BSCF of oil and gas respectively. case 1: an additional recovery for the field was about37.21MMSTB and 26.0BSCF of oil and gas respectively. STOOIP of 1548.297365 MMSTBand GIIP of 3007862.483 MMSCF from volumetric, EUR of 52261BSCF gas and EUR of452.6MMSTB from decline curve analysis, and GIIP of 370.47MMSCF and STOOIP of377.26MMSTB from material balance. the volume of initial hydrocarbon obtained frommaterial balance analysis and static model volume estimates are comparable and within 2 -6%difference. The declining curve analysis and production performance analysis were carried outand compared with a slight variation of the end volumes.This study has utilised dynamic reservoir data integrated with various models, which can bevaluable in improving reserve estimation using multiple models compared to single modelsadopted by many research and industry practices