Factors Affecting Choice of Subspecialisation amongst Orthopaedic Surgery Residents in Southern Nigeria.

Background: As the field of surgery continues to evolve, subspecialty training is fast becoming integral to surgical education. Presently, orthopaedic surgery residents have opportunities to subspecialise in different areas.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the factors affecting the choice of desired subspecialties amongst orthopaedic surgery residents in southern Nigeria.

Assessment of leachable and persistent dissolved organic carbon in sludges and biosolids from municipal wastewater treatment plants.

Environmental regulation of organic pollutants has not kept pace with the growth in the number and diversity of legacy and emerging organic substances now in use. Simpler and cheaper tools and methodologies are needed to quickly assess the organic pollutant risks in waste materials applied to land such as municipal wastewater treatment sludges and biosolids. This study attempts to provide these, using an approach that consists of chemical leaching and analysis of dissolved organic carbon and determination of its biodegradability by measuring persistent dissolved organic carbon.

Cow urine as a source of nutrients for Microbial-Induced Calcite Precipitation in sandy soil.

Microbial Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP) via biostimulation of urea hydrolysis is a biogeochemical process in which soil indigenous ureolytic microorganisms catalyse the decomposition of urea into ammonium and carbonate ions which, in the presence of calcium, precipitate as calcium carbonate minerals. The environmental conditions created by urine in soil resemble those induced by MICP via urea hydrolysis. Thus, this study assesses the suitability of a waste product, cow urine, as a source of nutrients for MICP.

Road deposited sediment: implications for the performance of filter drains servicing strategic trunk roads.

This study investigates the contribution of road deposited sediment (RDS) to clogging and the operational lifecycle of highway filter drains (HFDs). RDS samples were collected from nine Scottish trunk roads and fractionated into grain size classes to determine their particle size distributions (PSDs). Results show that RDS PSDs, and the percentage of each grain size fraction, are highly variable.

Effect of liquid nitrogen pre-treatment on various types of wool waste fibres for biogas production.

This study investigated the role of liquid nitrogen (LN) in increasing microbial accessibility of wool proteins for biogas production. It involves a mechanical size reduction of four different types of raw wool fibres, namely, Blackface, Bluefaced Leicester, Texel and Scotch Mule, in presence of liquid nitrogen, followed by the determination of the methane production potential of the pre-treated wool fibres. The highest methane yield, 157.