School of materials science and engineering

An increasing number of states in northern Nigeria are closing their schools to protect their students from a rise in “abductions and banditry in the last two months,” the Nigerian newspaper This Day reported on Tuesday. Northern Nigerian states including Kano, Katsina, Yobe, Zamfara, Niger, Jigawa, and Sokoto have closed a significant number of their public schools in recent weeks. Kano Governor Abdullahi Ganduje recently ordered ten schools located on the remote outskirts of the state, where security is limited, to close down. He later extended the order to five healthcare worker training centers in Kano. Zamfara Governor Bello Matawalle ordered the closure of all schools in the state on February 26. Zamfara and Katsina states have been most affected by the recent wave of abductions across northern Nigeria. The Islamist terror group Boko Haram has plagued the region with violent attacks since it formed in Kano in the early 2000s with the goal of establishing an Islamic … [Read more...] about Nigeria: States Shut Down Schools as Jihadist Abduction Wave Continues

SANTA CRUZ (CBS SF/BCN) — Officials from Santa Cruz County say they will have offered the vaccine to all of K-12 educators and staff in the county by Friday. That means by the end of the week 100% of the roughly 5,000 K-12 teachers and staff who want the vaccine would have at least one dose offered, Santa Cruz County Office of Education Superintendent Faris Sabbah said. READ MORE: SF Corruption Probe: Recology Agrees To $100 Million Settlement, Refunds For Trash, Recycling Overcharges Many surrounding counties have just started offering the vaccine to education staff, in addition to other essential workers, at the end of February, so how did Santa Cruz County beat them to the punch? “We had already been partnering with Dignity Health since the beginning of February,” Sabbah said. Dignity Health is a multi-county entity that gets its own vaccine allocation in the state. By early February it had already vaccinated its clients 65 years and older, so it had a slew of extra … [Read more...] about COVID Schools: Santa Cruz County Will Have Offered Vaccine to All K-12 Educators by Friday

By: KDKA-TV News Staff MORGANTOWN, W. Va. (KDKA/AP) – Researchers say an experiment at WVU confirmed two masks are better than one. READ MORE: WalletHub: Pennsylvania Among Least Safe States During Pandemic Research from the West Virginia University School of Medicine found the combination of a disposable surgical mask won under a tightly-fitting outer layer significantly improves filtration efficiency and protection. Researchers recruited four people to wear three types of masks individually: a disposable mask and the cloth mask and gaiter that WVU gives to students and employees. They also wore the surgical mask under the cloth mask and gaiter. The researchers found that the cloth mask worn over the surgical mask performed the best, with a filtration efficiency in a room filled with saline droplets of 84%. The surgical mask worn under the gaiter had a filtration efficacy of 81%. Last month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the results of a lab … [Read more...] about WVU Experiment Confirms Two Masks Are Better Than One

Denver Water is asking for state permission to expand the uses of recycled water — to include flushing toilets in commercial buildings, washing cows and pigs at the National Western Stock Show, and irrigating crops such as marijuana. This could increase the 80 or so big customers in metro Denver who already tap a 70-mile network of underground purple pipes carrying recycled water, cleaned to meet the drinking water standards that applied in the 1980s. But state health officials aren’t sure it’s safe to allow wider use. A  Denver Water plan calls for at least doubling the amount of recycled water the utility provides, beyond the current 2.6 billion gallons a year to more than 5.6 billion gallons by 2020. Denver’s marijuana sector, alone, could make a big difference. Dope growers have emerged as significant guzzlers, feeding plants an estimated 146 million gallons a year of drinking water. That’s more than the 98 million gallons that metro Denver brewers use to make beer. … [Read more...] about Denver Water wants to double the amount of recycled water used in the city. The health department’s not sure it’s safe

WRAY — Colorado farmers who defied nature’s limits and nourished a pastoral paradise by irrigating drought-prone prairie are pushing ahead in the face of worsening environmental fallout: Overpumping of groundwater has drained the High Plains Aquifer to the point that streams are drying up at the rate of 6 miles a year. The drawdown has become so severe that highly resilient fish are disappearing, evidence of ecological collapse. A Denver Post analysis of federal data shows the aquifer shrank twice as fast over the past six years compared with the previous 60. While the drying out of America’s agricultural bread basket ($35 billion in crops a year) ultimately may pinch people in cities, it is hitting rural areas hardest. “Now I never know, from one minute to the next, when I turn on a faucet or hydrant, whether there will be water or not. The aquifer is being depleted,” said Lois Scott, 75, who lives west of Cope, north of the frequently bone-dry bed of the Arikaree River. A … [Read more...] about The water under Colorado’s Eastern Plains is running dry as farmers keep irrigating “great American desert”