This study, was conducted between April 2011 and July 2012, to estimate the degree of impact of road traffic noise on the exposed population in terms of sleep disturbances in daytime and nighttime periods in order to suggest ways of minimizing the impact if it appears adverse. Acoustical and social surveys were conducted. From acoustical survey, noise level data were obtained, while in social survey, responses of how road traffic noise affects city dwellers during sleep were obtained as well. This is to correlate acoustical (objective) data with social (subjective response) data to help estimate the degree of impact of the road traffic noise on the people exposed to it. Five (5) cities were randomly chosen after pilot study. These are Calabar, Uyo, Umuahia, Owerri and Port Harcourt cities. The cities were found to be of huge road traffic volume, with enormous environmental noise pollution indicators. A precision sound level meter (SLM), Bruel and Kjaer (B&K), type 732 was used after calibration, to obtain noise level data, while a questionnaire carefully designed by these authors, was used to generate subjective response data from respondents. Five thousand (5000) copies of the questionnaire were distributed carefully to 5000 persons, 2500 each for both high and low road traffic noise pollution zones. Response rates were 93.5% (high noise zone) and 94.8% (low noise zones). One hundred (100) measurement sites were chosen in all (50 sites each for both high and low noise zones). Results obtained show Original Research Articlethat the degree of sleep disturbance during daytime range between 93.8% to 95.8%, and during nighttime was 98.5 to 98.8%. From these findings, it is very clear that people living along busy roads in the cities under study are really suffering from serious sleep disturbances both at night and day times.
Industrial noise pollution has been assessed in 27 industries in southeastern Nigeria. A total of 750 workers were contacted with working schedules of 6-12h/day, over 5 working days and with exposure times that varied between 0 second and 37.5 minutes were contacted. Noise exposure ratings of greater than unity were found in over 20 of the industries. Although almost all the workers contacted wanted occupational noise pollution controlled because of its various effects on them, a few still responded that they liked occupational noise. This gives credence to the assertion that ignorance of the irreversible nature of the far-reaching and wide-ranging effects of environmental noise pollution could yet be one reason for the "willing" exposure of the industrial plant workers to occupational noise.
The study examined science teachers' perception of ICT capacity building workshop in Akwa Ibom State secondary schools. The design for the study was a descriptive survey. The census of 295 science teachers from Uyo Local Government Area that attended a 3-day ICT capacity building workshop was used for the study. One research question and two hypotheses guided the study. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire on ICT capacity building workshop. The instrument reliability was Cronbach's alpha coefficient: .86. Data for answering the research question was Researchers and Reviewers, 2006-2017: www.afrrevjo.net. Indexed African Journals Online: www.ajol.info analysed using mean and standard deviation while t-test was used for testing the hypotheses at .05 level of significance. Findings revealed that science teachers' perception of ICT capacity building workshop was low as most science teachers lacked clear understanding of what benefits ICT capacity building workshop may afford them. The findings also indicated that facilities were grossly inadequate to effectively equip science teachers with knowledge of ICTs during capacity building workshops. The findings also showed that the frequency of use of ICT capacity building workshop was a once-in-a-year event and this was too short a duration for any meaningful utilization of ICT technologies in instructional delivery to adequately enhance ICT knowledge among learners. Based on these findings, recommendation amongst others; was that ICT capacity building workshop should be more frequently organized in the state to update science teachers' knowledge on ICTs for lesson delivery.
A cross-sectional and longitudinal study of the effects of loud noise on residents of Calabar, Nigeria, has been carried out using subjective and objective measures. For the cross-sectional study, a 39-item questionnaire was used for the subjective measure. A sample size of 1000 people in the high noise zones with equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure levels over 80 dB was randomly selected and used as the study group. In the low noise zone with equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure levels under 80 dB, 1000 people were also randomly selected and used as the control group. For the longitudinal study, a sample size of 15 persons who had worked in the Calabar Timber Market from July 2002 (when the first blood pressure assessment was carried out) to July 2006 (when the second blood pressure assessment was carried out) was used. Findings show that exposure to loud noise may not have an immediate effect on blood pressure, but, when individuals are exposed for a long period of time (4 years in this study), it leads to a significant rise in blood pressure.
Periwinkle shells and cassava effluent are wastes generated in very large quantities and majorly under-utilized. Due to existence of inefficient waste management systems in developing countries, their disposal is by indiscriminate dumping, a practice that adversely affects the environment and human health. Hence, there is an urgent need to examine their potentials for possible engineering applications in order to further proffer a safe way of managing them. In this work, Periwinkle shell nanopowder and cassava starch were prepared from the wastes and then used to fabricate disc-shaped samples. The samples were developed with various lengths/thicknesses and in triplicates, after which their electrical and dielectric properties were evaluated. For lengths/thicknesses of 2.6 mm to 6.5 mm, the mean electrical resistance and electrical resistivity obtained were (9.89 to 23.00) × 106 Ω and (8.231 × 105) Ωm respectively. Over the temperature range of 20°C to 50°C, the respective results for thermal sensitivity, activation energy, and temperature coefficient of resistance assessment were (6982 ± 158) K, 0.60 eV, and −8.12 %/K. More so, it was observed that quality factor increased with sample’s thickness and frequency of applied signal. With increase in frequency from 0.10 kHz to 100.00 kHz, the dielectric constant of the studied sample decayed exponentially from (20.54 ± 0.04) to (1.67 ± 0.01). Aside meeting the market requirements for NTC thermistors, it was found that the sample could serve as a suitable alternative to conventional dielectrics like mica, paper, plastic film, tantalum oxide, and aluminium oxide for production of capacitors.
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