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This paper divided into two items; the first is to assess the technical state of pump stations on the two branches of the Nile Delta for irrigation by solar energy to compensate the shortage of Nile water especially in such intensively cultivated region such as Delta. The second is studying the economics of these pumps when use the solar energy instead of Diesel. Reduction in Nile water resources in Egypt is inevitable due to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam (GERD). Where the major of the expected impact is a reduction in irrigation canals levels, the surface water could be pumped to irrigate these agriculture lands. HEC-RAS model is used to estimate the decline in the Nile level (in the two branches; Damietta and Rosetta). Two cases are of proposed of power system sources for the operation of pump station on Damietta and Rosetta Branches. The time period of the tested system was 25 years. The results showed that; around 28 pump stations will be hurt in the new conditions of the Nile level decline while 6 only can be operate in safe. the capital cost of the solar system was high when compared with the diesel cost, but the net present cost was highly economic in the solar system. The net present cost of the solar system to irrigates 23100 km2 (5.5 Million feddan) which are the cultivated areas in delta, in first and second cases as; about 33.1 (million LE during 25 years), and about 6.76 (milliard LE during 25 years) respectively. The total greenhouse gas emission by diesel system was about 32,469 (kg/year/4200 m2) with considering the daily working hours of pumps is 8 hours. Finally, either solar energy or diesel usages will increase the economic burden of Egypt but using the solar pump is less impact.

Public bike-sharing schemes (PBSS) or bicycle hiring schemes (BHS) are now available in many cities globally. The purpose of this paper is to provide an outline for the feasibility of implementing PBSS in Bangladesh, particularly in Dhaka city, discussing the major issues that need to be considered. For doing this, PBSS that are already available and operating in six different cities - London, Paris, New York, Buenos Aires, Hangzhou, and New Delhi - were studied and relevant documents were reviewed to understand the salient features of the schemes as well as their overall operating and management systems. By understanding the critical aspects of the PBSS in the above mentioned cities, the implementation process and tasks required for PBSS were assessed with the existing conditions in the case study area of Dhaka city. The detailed scheme of bike-sharing for the case study locations in Dhaka were prepared and analysis was made of the strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis) of the proposed scheme. Questionnaire surveys of bicyclists were made to understand their travel patterns as well as deriving their opinions and views regarding the proposed PBSS for the case study locations. Findings of this research will help as the guiding principles for implementing PBSS in Dhaka city as well as in other similar cities in Bangladesh, or in other countries in the Global South.

First outbreak of COVID-19 was in the city of Wuhan in China in Dec.2019 and then it becomes a pandemic disease all around the world. World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed more than 5.5 million cases and 341,155 deaths from the disease till the time of writing this paper. This new worldwide disease forced researchers to make more precise way to diagnose COVID-19. In the last decade, medical imaging techniques show its efficiency in helping radiologists to detect and diagnose the diseases. Deep learning and transfer learning algorithms are good techniques to detect disease from different image source types such as X-Ray and CT scan images. In this work we used a deep learning technique based on Convolution Neural Network (CNN) to detect and diagnose COVID-19 disease using Chest X-ray images. Moreover, the modified AlexNet architecture is proposed in different scenarios were differing from each other in terms of the type of the pooling layers and/or the number of the neurons that have used in the second fully connected layer. The used chest X-ray images are gathered from two COVID-19 X-ray image datasets and one dataset includes large number of normal and pneumonia X-ray images. With the proposed models we obtained the same or even better result than the original AlexNet with having a smaller number of neurons in the second fully connected layer.

This paper examines the feasibility of pre-determined fare structures for rickshaws. An empirical study was conducted with two case study locations (prospective BRT stations) in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Eleven focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with rickshaw-pullers and other stakeholder groups, and semi-structured open-ended interviews were conducted with twenty five transport professionals/policymakers. It was found that rickshaw-pullers often like a bargaining process for fixing a fare so that they can charge more from passengers, particularly from those who are new in the area or ‘seem to be’ wealthy, or when there is no other alternative mode available for passengers. On the other hand, passengers prefer a fixed fare structure and do not like the bargaining process. Rickshaw-pullers, passengers and policymakers all mentioned that it would be possible to have a pre-determined fixed fare structure for rickshaws if rickshaws were more localised (serving only within a particular neighbourhood or for a short distance, as an access leg to public transport). However, this policy would need to be backed by effective planning, regular monitoring and enforcement, along with ‘awareness generation’ for rickshaw-pullers and wide scale publicity campaigns.

CNN-based transfer learning method plays a significant role in the detection of various objects such as cars, dogs, motorcycles, face and human detection in nighttime images by using visible light camera sensors. This method mainly depends on the images captured by cameras in order to detect the mentioned objects in a variety of environments based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs). In this study, we utilized the same method to detect coronavirus phenomena by using chest X-ray images that have been collected from three different open-source datasets with the aim of rapid detection of the infected patients and speed up the diagnostic process. We used one of the deep learning architectures in a Transfer Learning mode and modified its final layers to adapt to the number of classes in our investigation. The deep learning architecture that we used for the purpose of COVID-19 detection from X-ray images is a CNN designed to detect human in nighttime. We also modified the CNN architecture in three different scenarios named (Model 1, Model 2 and Model 3) in order to improve the classification results. Compared to model one and two, the result improved in model three and the number of misclassified cases reduced particularly in detecting Abnormal and COVID-19 cases. Although our CNN-based method shows high performance in COVID-19 detection, CNN decisions should not to be taken into consideration until clinical tests confirms symptoms of the infected patients.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the increasing amount of personal and sensitive data collected in the healthcare inistiutions, make it necessary to use the cloud not only to store the data, but also to process it in the cloud. Obviously, most people would like to get a secure information related to their health. Therefore, with the recent growth of cloud computing privacy and data protection requirements have been evolving toto protect individuals from surveillance and data leakage. However, due to security concerns about frequent data breaches and recently upgraded legal data protection requirements (such as the EU's General Data Protection Regulation), it is recommended not to outsourcing unprotected sensitive data to public clouds. Cloud computing offers on-demand services including platforms, infrastructure and software that have been developed. To ensure confidentiality, the encryption algorithm is the most commonly used technique. However, Using a single algorithm is not effective for the high-level security of data in cloud computing. To fix this issue, we have introduced a new security mechanism using a built-in encrypted cloud storage system, which makes the proposed system strong against vulnerabilities. Various symmetric and asymmetric encryption techniques have been used to protect data from external threats. These techniques can help restrict the access to the stored data in order to be available for authorized users only. Combining Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and Cryptographic Curve Cryptography (ECC), the sensitive files are stored in client side and uploaded to the server. The results show that the impact of this built-in approach is more important than the other secure algorithms. In addition, it also showed that in the built-in algorithm, adding additional layers of security did not cause an increase in the download and upload time from and to the cloud.

Recent technologies like the internet, coupled with the software applications, have lately assisted to enrich our contemporary lives. Consequently, countless educational institutions can see the benefit of embracing these apps to attain the edge over. Cloud computing is taking the center stage in academia due to its abundant benefits. It is a growing technology that enables the conventional IT systems to be modified. Dissimilar learning institutions can apply various cloud-based services offered by service providers to guarantee that their students and other consumers can efficiently apply all the instructional activities. This paper emphasizes on the various technologies that have been applied to support the education process such as learning management systems. In the current work, we introduced Cloud-Based Educational System (CBES), which presents a conceptual model of cloud-based learning management system for educational institutions. Furthermore, the paper will demonstrate the expected results of the proposed model, which is aimed to provide a conducive environment to the educators, academic staffs and the administrators as well as dealing with more vital tasks required for e-learning process such as requesting for learning management system (LMS) navigations, text and media learning contents, and video learning contents.

There is lot of research work at enhancing the performance of energy conversion and energy storage devices such as solar cells, supercapacitors, and batteries. In this regard, the low bandgap and a high absorption coefficient of CdSe thin films in the visible region, as well as, the low electrical resistivity make them ideal for the next generation of chalcogenide-based photovoltaic and electrochemical energy storage devices. Here, we present the properties of CdSe thin films synthesized at temperatures (below 100°C using readily available precursors) that are reproducible, efficient and economical. The samples were characterized using XRD, FTIR, RBS, UV-vis spectroscopy. Annealed samples showed crystalline cubic structure along (111) preferential direction with the grain size of the nanostructures increasing from 2.23 to 4.13 nm with increasing annealing temperatures. The optical properties of the samples indicate a small shift in the bandgap energy, from 2.20 to 2.12 eV with a decreasing deposition temperature. The band gap is suitably located in the visible solar energy region, which make these CdSe thin films ideal for solar energy harvesting. It also has potential to be used in electrochemical energy storage applications.

Introduction and Objectives Emerging data suggests COVID-19 pneumonia could lead to fibrotic changes post-infection.1 In this study we seek to establish the radiological changes of non-ITU patients 3 months after hospital discharge based on the follow-up models recommended by the British Thoracic Society.2 Methods Patients admitted with swab-positive COVID-19 pneumonia were identified. Those who required intensive care and those deceased were excluded from analysis. Those who survived to hospital discharge were invited for a 3-month follow-up chest radiograph (CXR). Patients with normal CXRs were informed and discharged. Patients with persistent CXR changes were contacted and a decision made for further interval CXR or CT imaging. Results 200 patients were admitted with swab-positive COVID-19 pneumonia without escalation to intensive care and discharged between mid-March and mid-May 2020. 25 were excluded from follow-up due to patient factors (e.g. extreme frailty). The patients’ characteristics and outcomes are summarised in table 1. 87% of patients had their CXR return to normal after 3 months. The patients whose CXR returned to normal after 3 months are younger than those with persistent changes (p Conclusions Our results demonstrated reassuring findings that the majority of patients receiving ward-based care for COVID-19 pneumonia who survived to discharge have normal CXR findings by 3 months post-discharge. Younger patients are more likely to have CXR changes resolved completely by 3 months. Most patients with persistent CXR changes at 3 months are improving symptomatically and radiologically so up-front CT was not requested. More follow-up is required to characterise the longer term respiratory sequelae of COVID-19. Our follow-up is ongoing and more results will be available for presentation at the BTS Meeting if this abstract is accepted. We are also conducting follow up of patients surviving intensive care admissions with results submitted separately. References Spagnolo P, et al. Pulmonary fibrosis secondary to COVID-19: a call to arms? Lancet Respir Med 2020 British Thoracic Society Guidance on Respiratory Follow Up of Patients with a Clinico-Radiological Diagnosis of COVID-19 Pneumonia. V1.2 ed, 2020.

The global spread of the COVID-19 is a continuously evolving situation and it is still a major risk on the health of people around the world. A huge number of people are infected by this deadly virus and the number is still getting increased day by day. At this time, no specific vaccines or treatments of COVID-19 are found. Numerous ways are offered to detect COVID-19 such as swab test, CDC and RT-PCR tests. All of them can detect corona virus in different ways but they are not recommended by the reason of their limited availability, inaccurate results, high false-negative rate predicates, high cost and time consuming. Hence, medical radiography and Computer Tomography (CT) images were suggested as the next best alternative of RT -PCR and other tests for detecting Covid-19 cases. Recent studies found that patients with COVID-19 cases are present abnormalities in chest X-Ray images. Motivated by this, many researchers propose deep learning systems for COVID-19 detection. Although, these developed AI systems have shown quite promising results in terms of accuracy, they are closed source and unavailable to the research community. Therefore, in the present work, we introduced a deep convolutional neural network design (SAARSNet) designed to detect COVID-19 cases from chest X-Ray images. 1292 X-Ray images have been used to train and test the proposed model. the images have been collected from two open-source datasets. The input images are progressively resized into (220 by 150 by 3) in order to decrease the training time of the system and improve the performance of the SAARSNet architecture. Furthermore, we also investigate how SAARSNet makes predictions under three different scenarios with the aim of distinguishing COVID-19 class from both Normal and Abnormal classes as well as gaining deeper perceptions into critical factors related to COVID-19 cases. We also used the confusion metrics for evaluating the performance of SAARSNet CNN in an attempt to measure the true and false identifications of the classes from the tested images. With the proposed architecture promising results has been achieved in all of the three different scenarios. Although, there are some misclassified cases of COVID-19, the corresponding performance was best in detecting both Normal and Abnormal cases correctly. Furthermore, in the three classes scenario, normal class has been achieved 100% positive predictive value while optimistic results have been investigated in detecting COVID-19 and abnormal classes.

In this paper, we present carbon nanofiber (CNF)-based capacitors in a MIM configuration, a CNF-MIM, with a small footprint, low profile height, and high capacitance density that can be used both as integrated and as discrete component. Being produced in a fully CMOS compatible process it is likely to play a major role as further miniaturization of future electronics moves on. The devices were characterized from 25 °C to 150 °C and from 0 V to 5 V. It was demonstrated that a CNF-MIM with a total CNF height of 6 μm achieved a capacitance density of about 400 nF/mm2. Also shown was an ESR of about 45 mΩ. It was found that the capacitance increased slightly with temperature by 0.03-0.06 %/K and that the capacitance was stable for biasing voltage with an increase between 0.5-4 %/V. Hence, it meets well with the X7R specifications. This behavior makes it a good competitor compared to MLCCs whose capacitance decreases with temperature and applied voltage and the CNF-MIM does this at the fraction of the device thickness of the MLCC.

The global spread of Covid-19 has enhanced the adoption of virtual education and the use of technology in order to reduce the risk of contagion. Recently, the academics have turn out to be more technology-orientated and the educational establishments continue to seek opportunities in order to adopt an environment where all researchers could have access to high-quality scientific resources at anytime and anywhere in the world. Cloud computing is a model, which provides the users with services and application software on-demand, using the Internet. While the use of cloud computing applications is growing, there are ongoing research challenges related to guaranteeing security, privacy and the integration of the cloud applications. To the extent of our knowledge, the present study is the first from this type to thoroughly present the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on cloud computing environment in higher education institutions in Iraqi universities. This study will critically analysis the views of the faculty staff and researchers in Iraqi universities on cloud computing. It also tries to take a quick look at how Iraqi university staff responded to the epidemic in terms of research activities. The results shows that about 99% of the respondents considered the cloud applications to have great role in encouraging the research works in their institutes. Concerning the benefits of cloud services, the availability and saving cost were selected as most important factors that encouraging the adoption of cloud services. On the other hand, issues related to performance, lack of user control were selected as major problems in applying cloud services in Iraqi institutions Finally, it can be concluding that reducing the risks of the security, authorization, control and providing better performance of cloud services can enhance the use of cloud applications by researchers at Iraqi universities.

The existence of Massive datasets that are generated in many applications provides various opportunities and challenges. Especially, scalable mining of such large-scale datasets is a challenging issue that attracted some recent research. In the present study, the main focus is to analyse the classification techniques using WEKA machine learning workbench. Moreover, a large-scale dataset was used. This dataset comes from the protein structure prediction field. It has already been partitioned into training and test sets using the ten-fold cross-validation methodology. In this experiment, nine different methods have been tested. As a result, it became obvious that it is not applicable to test more than one classifier from the (tree) family in the same experiment. On the other hand, using (NaiveBayes) Classifier with the default properties of the attribute selection filter has a great time consuming. Finally, varying the parameters of the attribute selections should be prioritized for more accurate results.

Quaternary chalcogenides form a large class of materials that continue to be of interest for energy-related applications. Certain compositions have recently been identified as possessing good thermoelectric properties however these materials typically have the kesterite structure type with limited variation in composition. In this study we report on the structural, optical and electrical properties of the quaternary chalcogenides CuZn2InTe4 and CuCd2InTe4 which crystallize in the modified zinc-blende crystal structure, and compare their properties with that of CuZn2InSe4. These p-type semiconductors have direct band gaps of about 1 eV resulting in relatively high Seebeck coefficient and resistivity values. This work expands on the research into quaternary chalcogenides with new compositions and structure types in order to further the fundamental investigation of multinary chalcogenides for potential thermoelectrics applications.

Web-based Kurdish media have seen a tangible growth in the last few years. There are many factors that have contributed into this rapid growth. These include an easy access to the internet connection, the low price of electronic gadgets and pervasive usage of social networking. The swift development of the Kurdish web-based media imposes new challenges that need to be addressed. For example, a newspaper article published online possesses properties such as author name, gender, age, and nationality among others. Determining one or more of these properties, when ambiguity arises, using computers is an important open research area. In this study the journalist’s gender in web-based Kurdish media determined using computational linguistic and text mining techniques. 75 web-based Kurdish articles used to train artificial model designed to determine the gender of journalists in web-based Kurdish media. Articles were downloaded from four different well known web-based Kurdish newspapers. 61 features were extracted from each article; these features are distinct in discriminating between genders. The Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) artificial neural network is used as a classification technique and the accuracy received were 76%.

This research is to integrate the focused economy into a more non-consumptive alternative; considering that a sustainable nature tourism could contribute to conservation of biodiversity. The objective of the study is to identify status and nature of existing tourism sites and products within Muar and Tangkak districts, in Johor. At the same time researchers pinpoint potential nature tourism products and suggest their development adding values to existing tourism activities. The final touch to this venture is creation of souvenir prototypes that portrays local image. Data were collected by site visits, scan observation and field sampling. Among chosen destinations were Gunung Ledang Johor National Park, C&C Mushroom Cultivation Farm Sdn. Bhd., Tangkak; Nasuha Herbs & Spice Farm and Tanjung Ketapang and Tanjung Emas Parks, Muar. Existing tourism products were oyster mushroom and herbal tea. From this research potential products proposed are stingless bee (Trigona group) and sandalwood (Aquilaria malaccensis), bunga tanjung (Mimusops elengi) and bird watching respectively. These new products were tested against eight criteria currently used for development of nature tourism product and they met six: morphological attractiveness, behavioural enticement, linkage to local culture, ecologically important to people, reliability of sightings and safety. Based on aspects such as time, cost and risk, data acquired were analyzed and used in formulating a tentative tourism package. Formulated tourism packages would need testing in the near future before released to be promoted into the market. From this research several other attractions and potential products were identified and discussed in this paper.

The aim of this research is the production of polyurethane (PU) foams with biopolyols from liquefied oil palm mesocarp fibre (OPMF) and renewable monomer. Liquefaction of OPMF was studied using polyhydric alcohol (PA) which is PEG-400 as liquefaction solvents in conventional glass flask. In the second part of this paper was obtained the PU foams which presented good results when compared with commercial foams and include polyols from of fossil fuels. PU foams were prepared by mixing liquefied OPMF biopolyol, renewable monomer from waste cooking, additives and methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI). Water was used as an environmental friendly blowing agent. The factors that influence the cell structure of foams (i.e., catalyst, surfactant, dosage of blowing agent, and mass ratio of biopolyol to renewable monomer were studied. The synthesized PU foams were characterized by FTIR and SEM. The formulation of the PU foams should be improved, but the results show that is possible the use biopolyols and renewable monomer to produce industrial foams with lower cost.The aim of this research is the production of polyurethane (PU) foams with biopolyols from liquefied oil palm mesocarp fibre (OPMF) and renewable monomer. Liquefaction of OPMF was studied using polyhydric alcohol (PA) which is PEG-400 as liquefaction solvents in conventional glass flask. In the second part of this paper was obtained the PU foams which presented good results when compared with commercial foams and include polyols from of fossil fuels. PU foams were prepared by mixing liquefied OPMF biopolyol, renewable monomer from waste cooking, additives and methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI). Water was used as an environmental friendly blowing agent. The factors that influence the cell structure of foams (i.e., catalyst, surfactant, dosage of blowing agent, and mass ratio of biopolyol to renewable monomer were studied. The synthesized PU foams were characterized by FTIR and SEM. The formulation of the PU foams should be improved, but the results show that is possible the use biopolyols and renewable ...

High global energy demand scenario has driven towards transformation from sole dependence on fossil fuels to utilization of inexhaustible renewable energy sources such as hydro, biomass, solar and wind. Renewable energy sources are abundant in Malaysia, especially palm biomass residues that are produced during the oil extraction process of fresh fruit bunch. Therefore, it is inevitable to harness these bioenergy sources, in order to prevent waste accumulation at adjacent to palm mills. Briquetting of palm biomass such as empty fruit bunch (EFB) with polyethylene (PE) plastics waste addition is expected not only could maximize the utilization of energy resources, but also could become as a potential solution for residue and municipal plastics waste disposal. In the present study, the physical and combustion properties of palm biomass briquettes that contain novel mixture of pulverized EFB and PE plastics waste were investigated experimentally. The briquettes were produced with different mixing ratio of EFB and PE plastics (weight ratios of 95:5, 90:10 and 85:15), under various heating temperatures (130-190 ) and at constant compaction pressure of 7 MPa. Based on the results, it can be said that heating temperature plays a significant role in affecting physical properties such as relaxed density and compressive strength. The values of relaxed density and compressive strength are within the range of 1100 to 1300 kg/m3 and 0.8 to 1.2 MPa, respectively. Meanwhile, mixing ratio does affect relaxed density and gross calorific value. All values of gross calorific (17900 to 21000 kJ/kg) and moisture content (7% to 9%) are found to fulfill the requirement for commercialization as stated by DIN51731 (gross calorific value>17500 kJ/kg and moisture content

In this paper we review some of the relationships existing between the optical properties, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity in graphene based transparent and conducting thin films. We provide a set of tools that are useful to identify the optimal trade-off between transmittance and electrical conductivity in these films. In addition we present a set of thermal conductivity measurements of graphene thin films and relate them to the electrical properties in order to build a comprehensive picture of the electrical, thermal, and optical properties of graphene based thin films (© 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Approximately 4,000 known/described species of fruit flies (Tephritidae) are distributed in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions of world, out of which 200 species are economically important and damaging/spoiling not only to fruits but also to a number of vegetable crops. Despite their tremendous importance, a limited amount of information is available on the ecology and behaviour of fruit flies especially when compared to fruit fly species complex. It is necessary to understand the ecology and behaviour before the formulation of management strategy. The present review may serves as a baseline data for scientists engaged in fruit fly management programs. Key themes include: (1) demography and population dynamics and, (2) behaviour (e.g. sexual, mating, oviposition, and feeding). The excess of literature on monitoring and management of fruit flies are available, which includes male sterilization and annihilation, mass trapping, chemical baits, mating disruption, and biological control. But few of them are easily adopted by users and give satisfactory control of fruit flies and rest are not easily adopted or if used does not give effective control, because of the lack of knowledge about the ecology and behaviour of fruit flies. If the information on population dynamics, behavior, and the related ecological factors are not jointly gathered, it is almost impossible to carry out an appropriate pest control at the right time and place. We hope that this synthesis will lay the groundwork for future ecological and behavioural studies of fruit fly species, populations, communities, and control.

A study was conducted in Kaptai reservoir, one of the largest man-made freshwater lakes of South-east Asia, to determine present status of water quality and its suitability for fishing and other uses. Water samplings were from middle part of the reservoir at 0.2 and 0.8 fractional depths at five different locations from upstream to downstream viz. Burburichara, Maichchari, Subolong, Basanthakum, and Rangamati. Water analyses show that concentrations of NO3-N, K+ and total P, and suspended solid at all the sampling stations were beyond the recommended values for fish culture. Concentrations of Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, SO42−, Cl−, total dissolved solid (TDS), dissolved oxygen (DO) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were within the standards for aquaculture. Concentrations of NO3-N, SO42−, K+ and total P showed no definite trend with depths, locations as well as rainy and dry seasons. Water pH, conductivity, Na+ and HCO3− contents were lower in rainy season, and DO and COD higher at almost all the locations in both the depths, compared with dry season. Total solids and concentrations of TDS, DO, COD, Ca2+, Mg2+ and Na+ were higher in upstream and decreased gradually towards downstream in the reservoir. Concentrations of DO and Ca2+ and pH were higher and Mg2+ less at 0.2-fractional depth than those at 0.8-fractional depth at almost all the locations. The reservoir is in mesotrophic condition containing high concentration of NO3-N and total P, in alarming status with the presence of excessive suspended solids from urban pollution around the town. It is necessary to adopt measures for protecting water quality in the reservoir due to such deteriorations.

In this paper, polymer foam composites (FC) have been developed based on polyol mixed flexible crosslinker and fibre filler of Meranti Merah. 10 mm, 20 mm and 30 mm thickness of foam polymer and its composites have been use in this study. The percentage loading of wood fibre of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% added with polymer foam is namely as polymer foam (PP) and its composites of PP5, PP10, PP15 and PP20. The sound absorption coefficient (α) and pore structure of the foam samples have been measure by using Impedance Tube test and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). UV Weatherometer is used to examine the durability and weatherproof of its composite. The results show that the highest thickness of the highest percentage fiber filler (Pp2030) gives higher sound absorption coefficient (α). 0.9922 and 0.99889 which contributed from low and high frequency absorption level respectively. The smallest pores size structure was observed with highest filler loading of PP20. The higher the thickness and the higher the percentage loading of wood filler gives smaller pore structure, consequently, increased the sound absorption coefficient level. Meanwhile, the stability of polymer foam composites is high due to unchanged pore structures morphology with prolonged ultra violet exposure.

Owing to the advent of the industrial revolution 4.0, the need for further evaluating processes applied in the additive manufacturing application particularly the computational process for slicing is non-trivial. This paper evaluates a real-time slicing algorithm for slicing an STL formatted computer-aided design (CAD). A line-plane intersection equation was applied to perform the slicing procedure at any given height. The application of this algorithm has found to provide a better computational time regardless the number of facet in the STL model. The performance of this algorithm is evaluated by comparing the results of the computational time for different geometry.

Fifty years after its discovery, aldosterone continues to stimulate interest as a therapeutic target. Early studies focused on aldosterone’s actions on hypertension, the kidney, and electrolyte handling. More recently, its actions on the heart and cardiovascular system have become more apparent. Aldosterone causes cardiac fibrosis and remodeling, and stimulates neurohormonal systems that adversely affect the cardiovascular system. Aldosterone antagonism attenuates these negative effects. Clinical studies have applied this science and demonstrated improved morbidity and mortality with aldosterone blockade, specifically in patients with chronic heart failure and patients who are postmyocardial infarction and with depressed left ventricular function. This article will address the pathophysiology of aldosterone in cardiac fibrosis and remodeling, review the current clinical trial data, and explore the application of aldosterone blockade in an expanded heart failure population. The Randomized Aldactone Evaluation Study showed that the aldosterone antagonist spironolactone reduced mortality when compared to placebo in patients with chronic advanced heart failure. Similarly, the Eplerenone Post-Acute Myocardial Infarction Heart Failure Efficacy and Survival Study demonstrated a significant reduction in mortality and hospitalizations for patients randomized to the aldosterone antagonist eplerenone. A more provocative question is whether aldosterone antagonism will afford the same protection in patient populations with heart failure and preserved left ventricular function. Clinical trials are underway, and results are eagerly awaited.

Barbershops constitute potential sites for community health promotion programs targeting hypertension (HTN) in African American men but such programs previously have not been formally evaluated.A randomized trial (ClinicalTrials.gov no. NCT00325533) will test whether a continuous HTN detection and medical referral program conducted by influential peers (barbers) in a receptive community setting (barbershops) can promote treatment-seeking behavior and thus lower blood pressure (BP) among the regular customers with HTN. Barbers will offer a BP check with each haircut and encourage appropriate medical referral using real stories of other customers modeling the desired behaviors. A cohort of 16 barbershops will go through a pretest/posttest group-randomization protocol. Serial cross-sectional data collection periods (10 weeks each) will be conducted by interviewers to obtain accurate snapshots of HTN control in each barbershop before and after 10 months of either barber-based intervention or no active intervention. The primary outcome is BP control: BP135/85 mm Hg (nondiabetic subjects) and130/80 mm Hg (diabetic subjects) measured in the barbershop during the 2 data collection periods. The multilevel analysis plan uses hierarchical models to assess the effect of covariates on HTN control and secondary outcomes while accounting for clustering of observations within barbershops.By linking community health promotion to the health care system, this program could serve as a new model for HTN control and cardiovascular risk reduction in African American men on a nationwide scale.

Compared with substantial clinical research on the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), much less is known about the importance of the sympathetic nervous system as a therapeutic target to slow the initiation and progression of human hypertension. Using microelectrode recordings of sympathetic activity and radiotracer measurements of regional norepinephrine spillover in hypertensive patients, recent research has advanced several provocative findings with novel--but still largely potential--therapeutic implications for clinical hypertension. These include a stronger scientific rationale for using 1) combined alpha/beta-blockers in the early phases of primary hypertension and obesity-related hypertension; 2) RAAS blockers as central sympatholytics in hypertension associated with chronic kidney disease; and 3) a higher dialysis dose--either nocturnal or short daily hemodialysis--to reduce uremic stimulation of a blood pressure--raising reflex arising in the failing kidneys. New outcomes trials are needed if we are to translate this largely theoretical body of research into clinical practice.

The paper presents an adaptive hybrid scheme which is based on fuzzy regulation, pole-placement, and tracking (RST) control algorithm for controlling the attitude and altitude of trirotor UAV. The dynamic and kinematic model of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is unstable and nonlinear in nature with 6 degrees of freedom (DOF); that is why the stabilization of aerial vehicle is a difficult task. To stabilize the nonlinear behavior of our UAV, an adaptive hybrid controller algorithm is used, in which RST controller tuning is performed by adaptive gains of fuzzy logic controller. Simulated results show that fuzzy based RST controller gives better robustness as compared to the classical RST controller.

Background: Pilonidal sinus is a common chronic disease of thesacrococcygeal region. The treatment for a pilonidal sinus varies according to the clinical presentation of the disease.Although many surgical methods have been suggested, an ideal method is still lacking because of high recurrencerates. Setting: Surgical Unit-II, Allied Hospital, PMC, Faisalabad. Material and Methods: This prospective studyincludes 30 patients who were treated with the use of a rhomboid excision and Limberg flap closure for chronic andrecurrent sacrococcygeal pilonidal sinus. The follow-up period ranged from 04 to 08 months. Results: The meanhospital stay was 03 days (range, 03-08 days) and the mean time to return to work was 15 days (range, 12-26 days).Early wound complications were encountered in 03 patients. No recurrence was noted on maximum of 08 months offollow-up. Nine patients had numbness at the operation site and 10% were not pleased with cosmetic appearance ofthe scars. Conclusions: The results favor rhomboid excision and Limberg flap closure in the treatment ofsacrococcygeal pilonidal sinus, especially in recurrent cases and in patients with extensive involvement. Low recurrencerates, shorter hospital stay, and time off from work may outweigh the disadvantages related to unfavorable cosmeticappearance.

The effect of pre-ionization by a shunt resistor on X-ray emission performance from a low-energy (2.7 kJ) plasma focus is investigated by employing time-resolved and time- integrated detectors. Different shunt resistors are employed and 71 MΩ is found the most appropriate in this experiment. It is estimated that with pre-ionization 49.56 J of energy is radiated as X-rays, out of which 21.5 J is in the form of Cu-Kα lines in 4π-geometry. The pre-ionization enhances the X-ray yield, broadens the working gas pressure range and improves the shot-to-shot reproducibility of the system. The pinhole images of X-ray–emitting zones indicate that the dominant X-ray emission is from the anode tip, although the emission from hot spots along the pinch axis also contributes.

A study of x-ray emission from a low energy (1.8?kJ) plasma focus (PF) device powered by a 9??F capacitor bank, charged at 20?kV and giving peak discharge current of about 175?kA by using three different anode shapes with a lead insert at the tip is reported. Quantrad Si PIN-diodes with differential filtering are employed as time-resolved x-ray detectors, whereas a multipinhole camera with suitable absorption filters is used for time-integrated analysis. The x-ray flux in different energy windows is measured as a function of the hydrogen filling pressure for each anode. The maximum values of the energy-integrated x-ray flux are found to be 1.36?0.06?J?sr?1, 2.70?0.11?J?sr?1 and 2.17?0.09?J?sr?1 for a cylindrical anode with a 75? cut at the tip, a tapered anode with a 75? cut at the tip and a tapered anode without any cut, respectively. The maximum x-ray emission in 4?-geometry is estimated to be 17.09?0.75?J, 27.91?1.28?J and 27.25?1.13?J with a cylindrical anode with a 75? cut at the tip, a tapered anode with a 75? cut at the tip and a tapered anode without any cut, respectively, and the corresponding wall plug efficiencies for x-ray generation are 0.95%, 1.55% and 1.51%. X-ray emission, presumably due to the electrons' bombardment activity at the anode tip, was dominant, which is confirmed by the pinhole images. To demonstrate the feasibility of the present PF device as a possible x-ray source for good contrast radiography, a set of experimental images is presented.

Insecticides have saved millions of human and animal lives since the date of their synthesis and use. They have played an important role that brought revolution in the field of agriculture and human health on control of insect pests of crops and vector-borne diseases. More than 80,000 chemical substances are now commercially available in agriculture and industry. About 4.6 million t of pesticides are applied into the environment and insecticides accounted for the largest portion of total use in the world to increase the productivity of food and fibre as well as to prevent the incidence of vector-borne diseases.

Sustainable agricultural systems must be adopted to increase the food and fiber production keeping in view of human health and increase in population; the number of undernourished has increased to almost 20% (The state of food insecurity in the world economic crises – impacts and lessons learned. In Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome). Insect pests have been causing serious damage in the fields and stored grains and their products. Interventions is required to limit the losses, therefore, synthetic insecticides have played a significant role in their management for more than 60 years. Indiscriminate use of insecticides have left undesirable residues in the environment, which are toxic to human beings and non target organisms as well as insects have developed resistance against them and resurgence of pests that lead to find a suitable, sustainable and efficient method of management. Microorganisms: bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa form the most abundant and diverse groups, which offer a vast resource for exploitation to use in the management program. Bacillus thuringiensis is a gram positive, occurs in soil and ubiquitous in distribution. It produces parasporal crystalline body which contains one or more cry proteins that can be toxic to a number of insects. cry proteins are encoded by cry genes and 200 of them are identified. Similarly, a number of insect pests are also vulnerable to viral diseases. Nuclear Polyhedrosis and Granulosis Viruses are commonly used against the Lepidoptera. They are highly species specific and safer to human beings. Fungi, often act as important natural control agents that limit the insect population. Promising results are obtained by Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae against many insect pests. B. bassiana grows naturally in soil throughout the world and causes white muscardine disease. Therefore, intensive work is required to improve the efficacy of microbial insecticides through molecular biology and genetic engineering to enhance their role in the insect management for better food security.

Purpose: To investigate the impact of reconstruction Field of View on Radiomics features in computed tomography (CT) using a texture phantom. Methods: A rectangular Credence Cartridge Radiomics (CCR) phantom, composed of 10 different cartridges, was scanned on four different CT scanners from two manufacturers. A pre-defined scanning protocol was adopted for consistency. The slice thickness and reconstruction interval of 1.5 mm was used on all scanners. The reconstruction FOV was varied to result a voxel size ranging from 0.38 to 0.98 mm. A spherical region of interest (ROI) was contoured on the shredded rubber cartridge from CCR phantom CT scans. Ninety three Radiomics features were extracted from ROI using an in-house program. These include 10 shape, 22 intensity, 26 GLCM, 11 GLZSM, 11 RLM, 5 NGTDM and 8 fractal dimensional features. To evaluate the Interscanner variability across three scanners, a coefficient of variation (COV) was calculated for each feature group. Each group was further classified according to the COV by calculating the percentage of features in each of the following categories: COV≤ 5%, between 5 and 10% and ≥ 10%. Results: Shape features were the most robust, as expected, because of the spherical contouring of ROI. Intensity features were the second most robust with 54.5 to 64% of features with COV < 5%. GLCM features ranged from 31 to 35% for the same category. RLM features were sensitive to specific scanner and 5% variability was 9 to 54%. Almost all GLZM and NGTDM features showed COV ≥10% among the scanners. The dependence of fractal dimensions features on FOV was not consistent across different scanners. Conclusion: We concluded that reconstruction FOV greatly influence Radiomics features. The GLZSM and NGTDM are highly sensitive to FOV. funded in part by Grant NIH/NCI R01CA190105-01

Purpose: A simple approach to investigate Interscanner variability of Radiomics features in computed tomography (CT) using a standard ACR phantom. Methods: The standard ACR phantom was scanned on CT scanners from three different manufacturers. Scanning parameters of 120 KVp, 200 mA were used while slice thickness of 3.0 mm on two scanners and 3.27 mm on third scanner was used. Three spherical regions of interest (ROI) from water, medium density and high density inserts were contoured. Ninety four Radiomics features were extracted using an in-house program. These features include shape (11), intensity (22), GLCM (26), GLZSM (11), RLM (11), and NGTDM (5) and 8 fractal dimensions features. To evaluate the Interscanner variability across three scanners, a coefficient of variation (COV) is calculated for each feature group. Each group is further classified according to the COV- by calculating the percentage of features in each of the following categories: COV less than 2%, between 2 and 10% and greater than 10%. Results: For all feature groups, similar trend was observed for three different inserts. Shape features were the most robust for all scanners as expected. 70% of the shape features had COV

Field experiments were conducted on rainfed wheat and mungbean for two consecutive seasons on a Udic Ustocrept to evaluate the effect of tillage techniques, fertilization, and weeding on crop yields and nutrient uptake. Tillage techniques were conventional, zero, and deep tillage. Fertilizer treatments consisted of a control, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilizer, and farmyard manure plus fertilizer. Grain yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was 2,404 kg/ha under conventional tillage, 2,008 kg/ha under zero tillage, and 2,839 kg/ha under deep tillage. Total dry matter of wheat was 7,612 kg/ha under deep tillage, 6,671 kg/ha under conventional tillage, and 6,016 kg/ha under zero tillage. Fertilizer application increased wheat grain yield by 112% and total dry matter by 150% over the control. Weed biomass of wheat was 57% greater under zero tillage than under conventional tillage. Mungbean (Vigna radiata L.) grain yield was 371 kg/ha under conventional tillage, 248 kg/ha under zero tillage, ...

Sustainable agriculture also aims at increasing the yield of food and fiber crops and reducing the incidence of pests and diseases to such a degree that they do not cause extensive damage to crops. With the advent of chemical pesticides in 1940s, this crisis was resolved to a great extent. But the overdependence on chemical pesticides and eventual uninhibited use of them has caused serious health and environmental problems. This concern has encouraged researchers to look for better alternatives to synthetic pesticides. Biopesticides can make important contribution to sustainable agriculture and help reduce reliance on chemical pesticides. microbial insecticide likeBacillus thuringiensis (Bt) produces a proteinic toxin which induces paralysis of the midgut and brings about cessation in feeding after being ingested by insect pests. Other promising candidates areBeauveria bassiana andMetarrhizium anisopliae. The spores penetrate the host cuticle, once inside the body, producing toxic metabolites called beauvericin (B. bassiana) and destruxins(M. anisopliae) responsible for death of the insects. Baculoviruses (Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus and Granulosis Virus) are safe to human beings and wildlife, their specificity is very narrow. They do not infect beneficial insects and have capacity to persist in the environment, making them very suitable for use in sustainable agriculture. Semiochemicals: attractants and pheromones, and botanicals are important sources of agrochemicals used for the management of insect pests. They degrade rapidly and therefore, are considered safer than chemical pesticides to the environment.

BACKGROUND: Barbershop-based hypertension (HTN) outreach programs for black men are becoming increasingly common, but whether they are an effective approach for improving HTN control remains uncertain. METHODS: To evaluate whether a continuous high blood pressure (BP) monitoring and referral program conducted by barbers motivates male patrons with elevated BP to pursue physician follow-up, leading to improved HTN control, a cluster randomized trial (BARBER-1) of HTN control was conducted among black male patrons of 17 black-owned barbershops in Dallas County, Texas (March 2006-December 2008). Participants underwent 10-week baseline BP screening, and then study sites were randomized to a comparison group that received standard BP pamphlets (8 shops, 77 hypertensive patrons per shop) or an intervention group in which barbers continually offered BP checks with haircuts and promoted physician follow-up with sex-specific peer-based health messaging (9 shops, 75 hypertensive patrons per shop). After 10 months, follow-up data were obtained. The primary outcome measure was change in HTN control rate for each barbershop. RESULTS: The HTN control rate increased more in intervention barbershops than in comparison barbershops (absolute group difference, 8.8% [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.8%-16.9%]) (P = .04); the intervention effect persisted after adjustment for covariates (P = .03). A marginal intervention effect was found for systolic BP change (absolute group difference, -2.5 mm Hg [95% CI, -5.3 to 0.3 mm Hg]) (P = .08). CONCLUSIONS: The effect of BP screening on HTN control among black male barbershop patrons was improved when barbers were enabled to become health educators, monitor BP, and promote physician follow-up. Further research is warranted. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00325533.

The Semantic Web Services have been emerging to enable dynamic service discovery, composition, invocation, execution monitoring. On the other hand, Software Agents are envisioned as autonomous, proactive software entities that act on behalf its users according to a given agenda of goals. Software Agents have been envisioned as potential user of Semantic Web Services in order to interact with semantic descriptions of SWS to autonomously discover, select, compose, invoke and execute the services based on user requirements. However, there exists a communication gap among the both. The major reason is that Software Agents are not compatible with widely accepted standards of Web Services. This paper provides a solution to make Multi Agent Systems compatible with existing Web Services standards without changing their existing specifications and implementations, with an assumption that it will be helpful for enabling further interoperability between Software Agents and Semantic Web Services. AgentWeb Gateway is an initiative for dynamic and seamless interoperation of Multi Agent Systems and Web Services. We present abstract architecture and detailed design of the proposed system, abstract algorithms for required protocol transformations, evaluation of the system and analysis of results.

This paper explores the existing forms of public transport system and their services as well as travel pattern of people in Siquijor Province, an island of the Philippines. Household questionnaire survey, interview of the passengers of various public transport modes at their stations, and a detailed participatory observation were conducted for the research. Bus, jeepney, easyride, tricycle, and habalhabal are the available public transport systems in the island. However, these services do not provide travel time, waiting time, availability or frequency, comfort, and safety that is required by passengers. Majority of the people mostly prefer the easyride for comfort and less waiting time whilst the bus for comfort. Considering the travel pattern, socio-economic situation and topographic condition, the research tried to identify which form of public transport system would be appropriate for the island. It was found that bus is appropriate for longer trips while easyride for the inter-municipal trips and habalhabal for the trips in mountain areas.

An investigation on temporal and spatial properties of hard x-rays (15–88 keV) emitted in a 5.3 kJ plasma focus using Si pin diodes and a pinhole camera is reported. The maximum yield of hard x-rays of 15–88 keV range is estimated about 4.7 J and corresponding efficiency for x-ray generation is 0.09%. The x-rays with energy >15 keV have 15–20 ns pulse duration and ∼1 mm source size. This radiation is used for contact x-ray imaging of biological and compound objects and spatial resolution of ∼50 μm is demonstrated.

A performance measurement technique that is applicable to CSMA/CD-based local area networks, such as the Ethernet, is described. The protocol and its performance characteristics as they affect monitoring are reviewed. Existing monitoring techniques are examined. A master/slave monitor measurement technique and the functions and measurements that the monitor supports are presented. An experimental implementation of the monitoring technique is described.

Bangladesh has a very high population density. Scarce land and the rapid increase of population of the country are creating high pressure over land-man ratio. Land ownership record system is insufficient and incomplete in Bangladesh. As a result, it spills out jumbled and spontaneous land development throughout the country, especially in the major cities. In this situation, it is important to establish a compatible land administration and management system for establishing a systematic approach for planned land development. Land Information System (LIS) is the most accountable and feasible systematic approach for developing an up-to-date land administration and management. LIS is related to various quantitative and qualitative aspects of land resource. Holding different cartographic information, LIS facilitates capturing, retrieval, and querying of information and provides tools to perform different analyses. Based on the secondary information by literature review, this paper is aimed at studying the existing land administration system, and recommending feasible interventions and strategy of LIS for creating an efficient land administration and management policy for Bangladesh. This paper also focuses on the challenges of LIS that are needed to be resolved for framing the existing land administration and management policy for planned and controlled growth of Bangladesh.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbip.v2i0.9572Journal of Bangladesh Institute of Planners Vol. 2, December 2009, pp. 116-125