Evaluation of radiation protective devices in radiology departments is one of the practices that ensure radiation protection and staff and patients safety in hospitals. A research work to evaluate 1.5mm lead shield used for radiological protection was carried out in Radiological Unit of Sharda Hospital, of Sharda University, India, using 300mA fixed x-ray machine room. The evaluation was done in the x-ray energy (kVp) range between 52-81 and by using calculative procedure and by direct measurement of the radiation dose rates. The two results were compared. The results shows that, in the absence of the shield, only 11.82% of the radiation exposure was attenuated by the air space before reaching the radiographer's stand, while in the presence of the shield, 96.50% was attenuated, whereas, for the measured result only 10.17% was attenuated in the absence of the shield and 89.83% was attenuated in the presence of the shield before reaching the radiographer's stand. The unit of radiation exposure was converted to that of equivalent dose and that of effective dose in order to assess the radiographer's safety level behind the shield. It was found that, the equivalent/effective dose is as low as to be accepted according to the policy of ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable), and within the NCRP recommended limit. This guaranteed the effectiveness of the lead shield of 1.5mm thickness in the x-ray energy range used in this study.

A Survey taken by the world health organization (WHO) and the international commission on radiation protection (ICRP) shows that residents of temperate climate spends only about 20% of their time outdoor and about 80% indoors and certain materials use for the construction of such buildings (rocks, soils, tiles etc) are known to be radioactive, and exposure to such radiation results in critical health challenges. Assessment of indoor and outdoor background ionizing radiation level at School of Technology, Kano State Polytechnic, Nigeria was carried out using a digital radiation meter (Radiation Alert Inspector). A total of 49 areas were surveyed and the results obtained showed that the annual indoor reading were highest at Compounding Lab. (2.368±0.35 mSv/yr) and Old Chemistry Lab. (2.169±0.35 mSv/yr), and lowest at New Biology Lab. (1.219±0.21 mSv/yr) and Press Workshop (1.303±0.35 mSv/yr). For the outdoor areas, SOT ring road was found to have the highest value of 0.557±0.17 mSv/yr, while Zoological Garden has the lowest effective value of 0.280±0.05 mSv/yr. For the lecture venues, Auditorium has the highest indoor annual equivalent dose of 2.060±0.49 mSv/yr, while H-Block ND I Textile Class recorded the lowest values of 1.275±0.27 mSv/yr. Base on the aforementioned findings, it was deduced that radiation levels are within the permissible radiation limit as stipulated by the ICRP and UNSCEAR of 2.4 mSv/yr and thus, SOT Kano is radiologically safe.

Solar energy is a large inexhaustible source of energy were the power from the sun intercepted by the Earth is over a trillion watt, which is many thousand times larger than the present consumption rate on the earth of all commercial energy sources. The sun could supply all the present and future energy need, presently the major way of extracting this energy is through solar panel and the efficiency of the energy conversion is in high consideration. Research has revealed that different factors can affect the efficiency of the panel, using a DT830B Digital Multi-meter and HTC-1 Clock/Temperature/Hygrometer on a Dp-Li21 polycrystalline solar panel. This work took the liberty of analyzing the effect of humidity and temperature on the efficiency of the solar panel. The result obtained shows that current production is highly aided by temperature within 42-45ºC and humidity below 35% and voltage production remains fairly stable with temperature below 42ºC and humidity below 60% while the power production is fairly stable with humidity below 40% and maximum with temperature at 45ºC, for power production on a panel mounted and to be mounted to be within maximum range, this analysis is to be carried out and put into consideration. Contribution/ Originality:This study contributes to the rectification of power fluctuation encountered in the use of solar panel, when the analysis is adopted and the recommendations are observed it will reduce the harmful effect the fluctuating power output has on the external connected devices.

Phy-X/PSD and XCOM are two software programs used for computations in radiation shielding and nuclear energy research. This study aims to compare the accuracy of Phy-X/PSD with that of XCOM in the determination of mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) of glass systems. The MAC values of 60B2O3-(40-x)BaO-xBi2O3, 50BaO-xBi2O3-(50-x)borosilicate glasses, and xTeO2-(70-x)ZnF2-25AsO3-5Sm2O3 glass systems at 0.662 MeV, 1.172 MeV and 1.332 MeV were determined using Phy-X/PSD. The mean absolute error (MAE) was determined and compared with MAE from experimental data and from XCOM. The results showed no significant difference between the MAC means obtained from the three data sets. However, single factor ANOVA test shows that the p-values for the MAC means are 0.344, 0.918 and 0.239 approximated to 3 d.p at 0.662 MeV, 1.172 MeV, and 1.332 MeV respectively and the variance was highest in the experimental result, followed by Phy-X/PSD, and least in the XCOM results. It could be concluded that both software programs can be used for radiation shielding computations, although result from Phy-X/PSD may have relatively more outliers compared to XCOM.

Solar energy is the most promising renewable energy source because of its free availability and an environmentally friendly source. The crucial applications of solar energy depend upon determining the precise position of the sun. In this research, we had made an attempt to determine the precise location of the sun for any topographical position of the earth using solar azimuth/altitude reckoner to track the path of the sun and related sun data. For the purpose of this work, we measured the position of Dutsin-Ma in Katsina State, Northwestern part of Nigeria. Solar online calculator (Keisan online calculator) was used to obtain primary data of sun’s (solar) angle parameters in order to calculate a series of variations in the azimuth and altitude angles using some inputs such as latitude, longitude, date, year, time and time zone. The results revealed that the maximum azimuth angles obtained from the sun are 294.38° for the winter solstice and 248.32° for the summer solstice with elevation angles of 79.01° and 53.46° respectively. Furthermore, the highest values of the hour angles were found to be 97.05° and 97.86° for the summer solstice and the winter solstice respectively. The findings of this work will help individual, government, and non-governmental organizations towards the utilization of solar energy and harnessing it especially during the installations of solar panels and other solar devices.