A challenge for developing acoustic metamaterials (AMMs) is considering the application of broadband muffling and load bearing capacity simultaneously. In this paper, a honeycomb based graded AMM muffler is proposed, which can widen the attenuation band and improve the structural stiffness without any external device by means of integrated design. Firstly, the acoustic and mechanical characteristics of the muffler unit cell are theoretically and numerically studied, and the graded muffler is designed based on these characteristics. The numerical results show that the graded muffler widens the attenuation bandwidth of the unit cell, and the simulation also shows that the graded muffler has greater stiffness than the uniform one. The stiffness driven muffler provides new possibilities for the design of advanced metamaterial with simultaneous sound insulation and load bearing performances.
Study of musical-acoustic influences, which are used to improve the functional state of a person, as well as her/his neurophysiological or psychological rehabilitation, is very relevant nowadays. It is related with a large number of conflict situations, significant psychological and informational overloads of modern human, permanent stress due to the pandemic, economic crisis, natural and man-made disasters. This work examines the effect of listening to low-frequency music on the percentage of alpha, beta, delta, and theta waves in the total spectral power of the electroencephalogram in the frequency band 0.5–30 Hz. To obtain rhythms of the brain the spectral analysis of filtered native electroencephalogram was used. For statistical analysis of neural oscillations the Student’s t-test and the sign test were implemented with usage of the Lilliefors normality criterion and the Shapiro-Wilk test. Statistically significant differences were identified in alpha, theta and delta oscillations. For the beta rhythm presented music did not play any significant role. An increase in the activity of the alpha rhythm in the temporal (for 2.20 percentage point), central (for 1.51 percentage point), parietal (for 2.70 percentage point), occipital (for 2.22 percentage point) leads of the right hemisphere and the parietal (for 1.74 percentage point) and occipital (for 2.46 percentage point) leads of the left hemisphere and also of the theta rhythm in the temporal leads of the left hemisphere (for 1.13 percentage point) were observed. The downfall of delta rhythm in the frontal lead of the left hemisphere (for 1.51 percentage point) and occipital in both hemispheres (for 1.64 and 1.33 percentage points respectively in the left and right hemispheres) was detected. These may indicate that listening to low-frequency compositions helps to restore the brain in physiological conditions at different functional overload levels, decrease the level of emotional tone, and promote relaxation.
National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”, Faculty of Electronics, Department of Acoustic and Multimedia Electronic Systems, Kyiv, Ukraine
State Institution National Scientific Center “The M.D. Strazhesko Institute of Cardiology”, National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
The acoustic vector sensor (AVS) is used to measure the acoustic intensity, which gives the direction-ofarrival (DOA) of an acoustic source. However, while estimating the DOA from the measured acoustic intensity the finite microphone separation (d) in a practical AVS causes angular bias. Also, in the presence of noise there exists a trade off between the bias (strictly increasing function of d) and variance (strictly decreasing function of d) of the DOA estimate. In this paper, we propose a novel method for mitigating the angular bias caused due to finite microphone separation in an AVS. We have reduced the variance by increasing the microphone separation and then removed the bias with the proposed bias model. Our approach employs the finite element method (FEM) and curves fitting to model the angular bias in terms of microphone separations and frequency of a narrowband signal. Further, the bias correction algorithm based on the intensity spectrum has been proposed to improve the DOA estimation accuracy of a broadband signal. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed bias correction scheme significantly reduces the angular bias and improves the root mean square angular error (RMSAE) in the presence of noise. Experiments have been performed in an acoustic full anechoic room to corroborate the effect of microphone separation on DOA estimation and the efficacy of the bias correction method.
The effect of the power amplifier on speech intelligibility in public address systems is often marginalised – i.e. it is assumed that it does not introduce significant signal distortion. This approach is justified when the linear range of the amplifier is used. The large crest factor of the speech signal and economic considerations mean that the amplifier also works in the non-linear range. In this paper, the effect of power amplifier distortion on the speech transmission index for public address systems (STIPA) is presented. In the first step, this influence was evaluated by measurements for Class AB and D amplifiers. Then, a computer model of the public address system based on the direct STIPA method, taking into account the non-linear properties of the amplifier, was proposed. Using the computer model, the optimum amplifier driving values were determined taking into account the reverberation time and interfering noise.
Detection of audio spoofing attacks has become vital for automatic speaker verification systems. Spoofing attacks can be obtained with several ways, such as speech synthesis, voice conversion, replay, and mimicry. Extracting discriminative features from speech data can improve the accuracy of detecting these attacks. In fact, a frame-wise weighted magnitude spectrum is found to be effective to detect replay attacks recently. In this work, discriminative features are obtained in a similar fashion (frame-wise weighting), however, a cosine normalized phase spectrum is used since phase-based features have shown decent performance for the given task. The extracted features are then fed to a convolutional neural network as input. In the experiments ASVspoof 2015 and 2017 databases are used to investigate the proposed system’s spoof detection performance for both synthetic and replay attacks, respectively. The results showed that the proposed approach achieved 34.5% relative decrease in the average EER for ASVspoof 2015 evaluation set, compared to the ordinary cosine normalized phase features. Furthermore, the proposed system outperformed the others at detecting S10 attack type of ASVspoof 2015 database.
The aim of this acoustic study is to analyse the phoneme [t] produced by school children surgically operated on for the cleft palate or cleft lip, in order to examine their vocal characteristics, to provide speech therapists with numerous concrete analyses of voice and speech, to effectively support them and to prevent some serious outcomes on their psychological and academic development. The motivation for this study was mainly stemming from the difficulties that Algerian schoolchildren with clefts encounter in the pronunciation of this phoneme. To carry out the study, several acoustic parameters were investigated in terms of the fundamental frequency F0, the first three formants F 1, F 2, and F 3, the energy E 0, the Voice Onset Time (VOT), the durations [CV] and [V] of the subsequent vowel [a]. For the analysis, further important parameters in the field of pathological speech were deployed, namely the degree of disturbance of F 0 (jitter), the degree of disturbance of intensity (shimmer) and the HNR (Harmonics to Noise Ratio). Results revealed disturbance in the values of F 1, F 2, and F 3 and stability in the values of F 0. Another important reported aspect is the increase in the value of the VOT due to the difficulties in controlling the plosives’ successive closure and release.
Most of the Indian cities and towns have been facing serious traffic noise pollution due to urbanization, substantial growth of new vehicles, inadequate road network, etc. Automotive traffic, railroads, and air traffic are the most common sources of noise pollution in cities, with vehicular traffic accounting for around 55% of overall metropolitan noise. Prolonged exposure to such loud noise causes anger, stress, mental diseases, discomfort, hypertension, concentration problems, and sleeplessness. This study aims to investigate the effects of COVID-19 societal lockdown on changes in the noise pollution levels before, during, and after the lockdown period in various industrial, commercial, residential, and silence zones in Bengaluru, India, in light of the recent imposition of COVID-19 societal lockdown. According to data acquired from the KSPCB (Karnataka State Pollution Control Board) online portal, the average noise levels before and during lockdown were determined to be in the range of 59.4 dB to 70.9 dB and 58.2 dB to 62.7 dB for different zones. During the lockdown, all commercial, industrial and educational activities were closed to limit the spread of infection, resulting in usage of private and commercial transportation declining dramatically. Reduction in the noise level was observed during the lockdown in all monitoring stations of Bengaluru, except for Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, where the noise level didn’t decline because of a COVID emergency. Maximum reduction was observed in the commercial area (11.56%) followed by industrial areas (8.34%). The result further indicated that only the industrial area experienced an increase of 8.41% in noise level, while other areas experienced a reduction in a noise level during the early post-lockdown. During the mid and late post-lockdown periods, most locations experienced a rapid spike in the noise intensity.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic the government of Spain decreed the State of Alarm to confine the entire population at their homes, except for essential services. Therefore, the central objective of this study is to evaluate the implication of this situation for the environmental noise existing in the city of Huelva (Spain). This study demonstrates that during the state of alarm an average daily reduction of 3.4 dBA was noted, and in the central moments of the day these reductions reached up to 4.4 dBA, while from 10:00 to 12:00 pm the reduction was around 6.5 dBA. Nevertheless, there were two moments of day: 3:00 am (garbage collection, street cleaning and container disinfection), and 8:00 pm (daily applause for health professionals), when the noise during the pandemic was higher than before it. It is further shown that globally, the loudest events only decreased by about 3 dBA, while the global background noise decreased by 10 dBA during the alarm state. Regarding road traffic noise, it is verified that in addition to being reduced by about 4 dBA, traffic represents 6.7% of noisy events during the alarm state, while before it represented 13%.
Using intelligent materials and sensors to monitor the safety of concrete structures is a hot topic in the field of civil engineering. In order to realize the omni-directional monitoring of concrete structural damage, the authors of this paper designed and fabricated an embedded annular piezoelectric ultrasonic sensor using the annular piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic as a sensing element and epoxy resin as the matching and the backing layers. The influence of different matching and backing layers thickness on the acoustic characteristic parameters of the sensor were studied. The results show that the resonant frequency corresponding to the axial mode of annular piezoelectric ceramics moves toward the high frequency direction with the decrease of the height of piezoelectric ceramics, and the radial vibration mode increases as well as the impedance peak. With the thickness of the backing layer increases from 1 mm to 2 mm, the radial resolution of the annular piezoelectric ultrasonic sensor is enhanced, the pulse width is reduced by 39% comparing with the sensors which backing layer is 1 mm, and the head wave amplitude and −3 dB bandwidth are increased by 61% and 66%, respectively. When the matching layer thickness is 3 mm, the sensor has the highest amplitude response of 269 mV and higher sensitivity.
On behalf of Upper Silesian Division of the Polish Acoustical Society (main organizer) and Committee of Acoustics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (coorganizers) we are pleased to announce that according to many years of tradition the above-mentioned Conferences known as “Winter Schools” have been organized and carried out. 50th Jubilee Winter School on Wave and Quantum Acoustics constituted platforms for sharing the results and achievements obtained in different branches of physical acoustics (e.g. molecular acoustics, relaxation processes, quantum acoustics, acousto-optics, magnetoacoustics, photoacoustics, acoustics of solid state, acoustic emission etc.). Conference consisted of 17th Workshop on Acoustoelectronics and 17th Workshop on Molecular Acoustics, Relaxation and Calorimetric Methods. XLVIXth Winter School on Environmental Acoustics and Vibroacoustics was the forum for all environmental and vibroacoustics fields. Particularly it concerned traffic noise, vibroacoustics of machines, room acoustics, building acoustics, noise protection and similar problems. Celebrations of the “Golden Jubilee included: • Jubilee Session with plenary lecture “The Golden Jubilee of the 50th Winter School on Wave and Quantum Acoustics – historical reminiscences” presented by prof. Tadeusz Pustelny and numerous touching addresses, • Special Session “50 years have gone by ... – an evening of remembrance” conducted by prof. Marzena Dzida; it was a very nice session, without time restrictions as to presentations and discussions and the real duration of this session was twice as large as planned. Finally, 52 people participated within Conferences presenting 44 lectures, reports and posters. In this issue one can find abstracts of some lectures and posters, which were presented during the Conferences. We are pleased to announce that on 27 February – 2/3 March, 2023, we will organize the next “Winter Schools” containing the Lth Jubilee Winter School on Environmental Acoustics and Vibroacoustics and 51st Winter School onWave and Quantum Acoustics. Thus, just now we invite you to participate in this “Golden Jubilee” Conference. We would like to invite scientific centres and groups to cooperate in organizing workshops on the subjects of their interests related to the theme of the Conference. Further information about Conferences is available on our website https://ogpta.pl/index.php/en/
The microphone data collected in aeroacoustic wind tunnel test contains not only desired aeroacoustic signal but also background noise generated by the jet or the valve of the wind tunnel, so the desired aeroacoustic characteristics is difficult to be highlighted due to the low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Classical cross spectral matrix removal can only reduce the microphone self-noise, but its effect is limited for jet noise. Therefore, an Airflow Background Noise Suppression method based on the Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (ABNSEEMD) is proposed to eliminate the influence of background noise on aeroacoustic field reconstruction. The new method uses EEMD to adaptively separate the background noise in microphone data, which has good practicability for increasing SNR of aeroacoustic signal. A localization experiment was conducted by using two loudspeakers in wind tunnel with 80 m/s velocity. Results show that proposed method can filter out the background noise more effectively and improve the SNR of the loudspeakers signal compared with spectral subtraction and cepstrum methods. Moreover, the aeroacoustic field produced by a NACA EPPLER 862 STRUT airfoil model was also measured and reconstructed. Delay-and-sum beamforming maps of aeroacoustic source were displayed after the background noise was suppressed, which further demonstrates the proposed method’s advantage.
School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Collaborative Innovation Center of Steel Technology, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Key Laboratory of Fluid Interaction with Material, Ministry of Education, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Science and Technology on Reliability and Environment Engineering Laboratory, Beijing Institute of Structure and Environment Engineering, Beijing 100076, China
Duct silencers provide effective noise reduction for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. These silencers can achieve an excellent sound attenuation through the attributes of their design. The reactive silencer works on the principle of high reflection of sound waves at low frequencies. On the other hand, the dissipative silencer works on the principle of sound absorption, which is very effective at high-frequencies. Combining these two kinds of silencers allowed covering the whole frequency range. In this paper, the effect of liner characteristics composed of a perforated plate backed by a porous material and geometry discontinuities on the acoustic power attenuation of lined ducts is evaluated. This objective is achieved by using a numerical model to compute the multimodal scattering matrix, thus allowing deducing the acoustic power attenuation. The numerical results are obtained for six configurations, including cases of narrowing and widening of a radius duct with sudden or progressive discontinuities. Numerical acoustic power attenuation shows the relative influence of the variation in the values of each parameter of the liner, and of each type of radius discontinuities of ducts.
Underwater acoustic images are acquired using sonar instrument that uses sound propagation to navigate and map the sea floor. The sonar devices are effectively used to create images of large area of the seabed. However, the visual perception of the object in the acoustic image depends on refraction, which is a function of changes in the speed of sound in successive layers of water. And refraction depends mainly on temperature, slightly on salinity and hydrostatic pressure. The quality and resolution of sonar imaging of the bottom depends on many other factors such as pitch, yaw and heave of the side scan sonar, the presence of volume scatterers in the water body, the distance of the sonar from the bottom and orientation of the object. Generally, the objects in an acoustic image would be of small size compared to their normal size as the distance between the sonar and object is larger. To detect and recognize the objects in the images, the resolution should be enhanced. In this paper, we propose an efficient edge preserving interpolation method for underwater acoustic image resolution enhancement which preserves the edge sharpness. The method handles the diagonal pixels in the first pass, in turn fills the horizontal and vertical pixels in the second pass. The results obtained are compared with the state-of-the-art interpolation techniques and the performance measures such as Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Structural Similarity Index Measurement (SSIM) shows an improved result.
The article presents the application of Acoustic Emission (AE) method for detection and registration of partial discharges (PD) generated in medium voltage (MV) cable isolation and MV cable head. The insulation of the high voltage cable is made of a flexible material whose properties are characterised by a high coefficient of attenuation of the acoustic signals. For this reason, the AE method has not been used so far to detect PD in energetic cables. The subjects of the research were the MV cable and the standard T-type cable head. The cable contained defects which were the source of partial discharges. In case of cable head the PD were provoked by thin grounded electrode which was introduced into connector opening. The results of AE measurements are presented in the form of spectrograms. Acoustic Emission was evoked when the applied voltage level reached the value of 7.5 kV for the cable and 4 kV for the cable head. The authors used the acoustic instrumentation of their own design intended for future field use. Obtaining successful results of partial discharges measurements using the acoustic method in the cable insulation makes an original contribution of the presented work.
The objective of the present work was to evaluate the hydrodynamic behaviour of a stratified bed filtration column consisting of 4 cm of sand and 2 cm of limestone to remove turbidity and measuring the head loss through the filter in several runs. In this study, two types of sand were used as filtering bed material, one fine and one medium. Crushed limestone was also available. These materials were characterized to determine the average particle diameter, porosity, and permeability coefficient. These were respectively 1.7∙10 –4 m, 336.96 and 0.68 m∙day –1 for fine sand, 3.3∙10 –4 m, 654.24 and 2.59 m∙day –1 for the medium sand and 1.26∙10–3 m, 388.8 and 8.64 m∙day–1 for crushed limestone. Using these materials, hydrodynamic analyses were carried out using clean water under rapid filtration conditions. In these analyses, different filtration rates were determined to be used in each experiment. Once the filtration rates were determined, the filtration analysis was performed with synthetic turbid water prepared at 8 NTU using tap water and bentonite. From the results obtained, a predictive model was developed based on total head losses for the evaluated filter, maintaining the rapid filtration condition. As a result, a turbidity removal efficiency of 97.7% was obtained with a total head loss of 17.8 cm at a filtration rate of 153 m·day –1. The developed model predicted head loss as a function of operating time, filtration rate, and filter depth to maximise turbidity removal. The model showed excellent prediction accuracy with R2 of 0.9999, which indicates that the model predictions are not biased. It was concluded that, due to the porosity of these materials, a stratified bed of sedimentary rocks has a great potential to be used in surface water filtration processes, which implies that it could be used at the rural community level as a form of water treatment, since the
Universidad de Cartagena, Faculty of Engineering, Chemical Engineering Department, Avenida del Consulado St. #30 No. 48 152, 130015, Cartagena, Colombia
Iraq has been suffering from decreasing Euphrates discharge due to the construction of dams within upstream countries and the use of surface irrigation systems. The country is facing a problem with meeting the increasing demand for water as a result of population growth and development in the industrial and agricultural sectors. Therefore, a simulation modelling was applied for western Iraq (Ramadi city as a case study) using the Water Evaluation and Planning System (WEAP) for the period 2018–2035. This research follows a four-step approach that involves: (i) evaluating the available water of the Euphrates River under declined water imports caused by the construction of dams in Turkey and Syria, (ii) assessing present and future water demands of the domestic, industrial, and agricultural sectors, (iii) improving water productivity (WP) by means of saving more water, (iv) estimating the economic returns under improved water use. The results showed that Iraq would face a serious problem in the coming years, represented by the limited storage of Haditha Dam, which is considered the strategic water storage site for the central and southern regions of Iraq. The study indicated the necessity of finding alternative sources of water supply by adopting new water management strategies to reduce the water deficit.
With the emergence of climate change and the increasing human intervention in the global climate, floods have affected different parts of the world. In practice, floods are the most terrible natural disaster in the world, both in terms of casualties and financial losses. To reduce the adverse effects of this phenomenon, it is necessary to use structural and non-structural methods of flood risk management. One of the structural methods of flood control is to allocate a certain part of reservoir dams to flood control. In order to safely exit the flood from the dam reservoir, the spillway structure should be used. One of the important issues in designing a spillway structure is reducing its construction costs. In order to safely exit the flood with a specified return period from the dam reservoir, as the length of the spillway decreases, the height of the water blade on the spillway increases. In other words, decreasing the spillway length increases the height of the dam and its construction and design costs. In this study, the design and comparison of the performance of two glory spillways and lateral spillways have been considered. The results showed that for a given length for the drain edge of both types of spillways, the height of the water blade on the glory spillway is always higher than the lateral spillway. For example, when a 10,000-year-old flood occurs, it is about 8 m.
At present, Pakistan has been facing acute shortage of irrigation water and farmers have been using conventional irrigation methods for orchards, such as flood and basin irrigation, thus wasting huge amount of fresh water. Therefore, it is necessary to find efficient irrigation methods to cope with this major burning issue. The micro drip irrigation method is considered efficient but in the case of mango orchards there is a problem of irrigation frequency, number of emitters, and duration of flow from emitters to meet water demand. Considering the above, an experiment was conducted in the experimental field of the Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam, by installing the drip system with two circular peripheries of lateral lines in clay loam soil covering the entire canopy of a mature mango tree. The radius of the first and second periphery around the tree trunk was 100 cm and 150 cm, respectively. Four emitters with 4 dm3∙h –1 discharge of individual dipper were fixed in each periphery. Emitters were tested for six different irrigation times, i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 h, to observe the moisture distribution pattern. Hydraulic characteristics, such as density, field capacity, porosity, infiltration rate, available water and permanent wilting point (PWP), were determined using standard methods (1.4 g∙cm –3, 33%, 49%, 8 mm∙h –1, 12.41% and 20% respectively). The texture class of the soil profile was determined as clay loam at the soil depth 0–120 cm. Fifty soil samples were collected at 0–10, 10– 30, 30–60, 60–90, and 90–120 cm depths and at 0–20, 20–40, 40–60, 60–80 and 80–100 cm distances on two opposite sides of emitters. The emitters provided sufficient moisture up to field capacity in clay loam soil with flow duration of 4 h. The maximum moisture distribution efficiency was 77.89% with flow duration of 4 h at vertical depth of 0–120 cm and 0–100 cm distance horizontally among four emitters as compared to 1, 2, 3 h flow duration which under irrigated the canopy area and 5, 6 h flow duration which excessively irrigated the canopy area of the mango tree. The water demand of the mango tree was met by 4 h flow duration which provided adequate moisture to the entire canopy up to 120 cm depth in the root zone and water saving was calculated as 15.91% under the installed drip irrigation system as compared with the conventional (basin) irrigation method.
Challenges with respect to potable water supply in Vhembe District threaten the health and welfare of local community. This paper is aimed at assessing the challenges and residents’ coping strategies to improve the potable water supply systems in rural areas in Vhembe District Municipality (VDM). Data for this paper was collected from households, councillors, traditional leaders and municipal officials through questionnaires, interviews and focus-group discussions. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used and thematic content analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyse data. The results showed that the main sources of water are ground water from boreholes which are used by about 45.3% of the communities, followed by tap water from the dams, by 35.3%, then rivers by 4.0%, fountains by 5.4% and water tankers by 10.0%. Among the identified challenges are: aged water infrastructure, system breakdowns, lack of funding, vandalism of infrastructure and lack of maintenance, operation of infrastructure by unskilled technicians, theft, and non-payment of water services, among others. To cope with water supply challenges, the study recommended that communities play active role in water projects which would include paying of water supply service for its sustainability. They should also play active roles in water committees that will manage, operate and maintain the water supply with the assistance of VDM officials. It was concluded that the rural water supply situation can be improved when communities, government and other relevant stakeholders cooperate and provide solutions and resources.
The mean flow characteristics in a curved channel are really different from those in a straight channel. The main cause is the existence of secondary flow within the flow in the curved channel. This paper will discuss the differences in mean flow characteristics due to changes in the bed topography in the curved channel. Acoustic Doppler Velocimetry (ADV) measurements have helped to analyse characteristics of the mean flow on flat and eroded beds in a 180° curved channel. Sand (mean diameter d 50 = 0.001 m and specific gravity Gs = 2.65) was selected as the bed material. The condition of flow in the approach section was steady and uniform with 0.159 m depth. One of the mean flow characteristics in the curved channel is the free surface superelevation due to the presence of centrifugal force. The second is the circular motion toward the inner-bank region at the lower layer and toward the upper layer outer-bank region. The cause of the circulation is the difference in centrifugal forces between the two layers. The magnitude of velocity near the bed surface is more significant than the flow near the water surface. This causes erosion in the outer bank region and deposition in the inner bank region. In general, tangential velocity vθ in flat bed is greater than its tangential velocity in eroded bed. The maximum velocity path in a flat and eroded bed of the curved channel resembles a sinusoidal curve, where the minimum value is located at 90° and 120° of the curve.
The 15th of United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. This paper investigates the approach adopted by indigenous peoples for conservation of woody plant species diversity in some selected spots in Abia State, Southeastern Nigeria. Relying on mixed method approach to research, data collection comprising field observation, ground truthing, plant species inventory, and key-informant interviews and analysis of data, two spots were purposively sampled, one from each of the two LGAs; Mbom in Bende LGA and Amangwu in Ohafia Local Government Area (LGA). A 50 × 20 m quadrat was sampled from each site, from where plant species inventory was undertaken. Shannon– Wiener diversity index (H’) was used to analyse the data. The result of Shannon–Wiener diversity index, shows that the diversity indices of the plant species for the two sites were 3.20 (Mbom) and 3.95 (Amangwu) respectively. The people of Bende and Ohafia LGAs employ some traditional laws to ensure conservation of woody plant species so as to achieve goal 15th of the SDGs. This paper advocates sustenance of those traditional laws that encourage conservation of woody plant species in the study area with enforceable sanctions to deter defaulters.
This study aimed at evaluating water quality of groundwater wells (GWWs) in Wadi Shati, Libya, and assessing its suitability for drinking. Water samples were collected from 17 GWWs and subjected to laboratory testing for 24 physical and chemical water quality parameters (WQPs). Analysis uncovered that the recorded values of 11 WQPs were consistent with the Libyan drinking water quality standard (DWQS). These parameters were pH, temperature (T), acidity, alkalinity, electrical conductivity (EC), sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and cadmium. However, values of colour and turbidity exceeded the maximum levels set by the Libyan DWQS at five out of the 17 study wells. Likewise, concentrations of chloride (Cl −), sulphate (SO 42−), and ammonia (NH3) violated the local DWQS in three locations, each. Additionally, concentrations of phosphate (PO 43−), iron, manganese, chromium, and nickel exceeded their maximum allowable concentrations according to the Libyan DWQS. The levels of these five parameters are alarming. Overall, the 17 studied GWWs suffer from varying levels of pollution that, mostly, arise from domestic and agricultural sources, e.g., septic tank seepage and agricultural drainage of agro-chemicals like fertilisers and pesticides. The results of this study emphasise that routine monitoring of groundwater resources plays a vital role in their sustainable management and stresses that water quality data are critical for characterisation of pollution, if any, and for protection of human health and ecosystem safety. Our results serve as guideline for sustainable management of water quality in the Wadi Shati District.
In the present study, the removal capacity of Pb(II) ions was investigated using the biomass of dried cattle manure in an aqueous solution. The biomaterials were characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) techniques. The results reveal that the adsorption mechanism may be associated with the interaction between Pb(II) ions and functional groups through aggregation, coordination, ion exchange, microprecipitation, oxidation, and hydrophobicity. The bio-adsorption of the metal was analysed in discontinuous tests; the effect of temperature, pH, agitation, and adsorbent dose was evaluated. The maximum adsorption capacity was determined at pH 7.5, 18°C and 200 rpm. The bio-adsorption of Pb(II) was best fitted to the pseudo-second order model. The experimental data of the isotherm were adjusted to the models of Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin–Radushkevich; while Langmuir’s model related better to the experimental data forming a single layer at saturation. The rate of adsorption was rapid, reaching equilibrium after 25 min and removal of 96.8%. Thermodynamic parameters determined that the process was viable, spontaneous, and exothermic. The present study contributes mainly to demonstrating that a biomaterial prepared from bovine manure is a promising adsorbent for heavy metals such as Pb(II). It also reduces the environmental impact of this waste through the generation of greenhouse gases in countries that maintain intensive livestock. Another important aspect is the reduction of the micro- and macronutrients accumulation in soil and contamination of surface waters and aquifers by runoff and seepage during rainy periods.
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