Search results for: Adam Diyawu Rahman

Authors: A. Mohammad Abdul Motalib Momin, B. Sheikh Mohammad Adil Uddin, C. Md Mamunur Rashid, D. Sheikh Arman Mahbub, E. Mohammad Sazzad Rahman, F. Abdullah Faruque

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The present study was designed to investigate the antioxidant and cytotoxicity potential of methanol and pet ether extracts of the Lagenaria siceraria (LM, LP), Cucumis sativus (CSM, CSP), Cucurbita maxima (CMM, CMP) plants. For the phytochemical screening, crude extract was tested for the presence of different chemical groups. In Lagenaria siceraria the following groups were identified: alkaloids, steroids, glycosides and saponins for methanol extract and alkaloids, steroids, glycosides, tannins and saponins are for pet ether extract. Glycosides, steroids, alkaloids, saponins and tannins are present in the methanol extract of Cucumis sativus; the pet ether extract has the alkaloids, steroids and saponins. Glycosides, steroids, alkaloids, saponins and tannins are present in both the methanolic and pet ether extract of Cucurbita maxima. In vitro antioxidant activity of the extracts were performed using DPPH radical scavenging, nitric oxide (NO) scavenging, total antioxidant capacity, total phenol content, total flavonoid content, and Cupric Reducing Antioxidant Capacity assays. The most prominent antioxidant activity was observed with the CSM in the DPPH free radical scavenging test with an IC50 value of 1667.23±11.00271 μg/ml as opposed to that of standard ascorbic acid (IC50 value of 15.707± 1.181 μg/ml.) In total antioxidant capacity method, CMP showed the highest activity (427.81±11.4 mg ascorbic acid/g). The total phenolic and flavonoids content were determined by Folin-Ciocalteu Reagent and aluminium chloride colorimetric method, respectively. The highest total phenols and total flavonoids content were found in CMM and LP with the value of 79.06±16.06 mg gallic acid/g & 119.0±1.41 mg quercetin/g, respectively. In nitric oxide (NO) scavenging the most prominent antioxidant activity was observed in CMM with an IC50 value of 8.119± 0.0036 μg/ml. The Cupric reducing capacity of the extracts was strong and dose dependent manner and CSM showed lowest reducing capacity. The cytotoxicity was determined by Brine shrimp lethality test and among these extracts most potent cytotoxicity was shown by CMM with LC50 value 16.98 µg/ml. The obtained results indicate that the investigated plants could be potential sources of natural antioxidants and can be used for various types of diseases.

Keywords: antioxidant, cytotoxicity, methanol, petroleum ether

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Authors: Armana Huq, Wahidur Rahman, Sanwar Kader

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Inland waterways in Bangladesh play an important role in providing comfortable and low-cost transportation. However, a maritime accident takes away many lives and creates unwanted hazards every year. This article deals with a comprehensive review of inland waterway accidents in Bangladesh. Additionally, it includes a comparative study between international and local inland research studies based on maritime accidents. Articles from inland waterway areas are analyzed in-depth to make a comprehensive overview of the nature of the academic work, accident and risk management process and different statistical analyses. It is found that empirical analysis based on the available statistical data dominates the research domain. For this study, major maritime accident-related works in the last four decades in Bangladesh (1981-2020) are being analyzed for preparing a bibliometric analysis. A study of maritime accidents of passenger's vessels during (1995-2005) indicates that the predominant causes of accidents in the inland waterways of Bangladesh are collision and adverse weather (77%), out of which collision due to human error alone stands (56%) of all accidents. Another study refers that the major causes of waterway accidents are the collision (60.3%) during 2005-2015. About 92% of this collision occurs due to direct contact with another vessel during this period. Rest 8% of the collision occurs by contact with permanent obstruction on waterway roots. The overall analysis of another study from the last 25 years (1995-2019) shows that one of the main types of accidents is collisions, with about 50.3% of accidents being caused by collisions. The other accident types are cyclone or storm (17%), overload (11.3%), physical failure (10.3%), excessive waves (5.1%), and others (6%). Very few notable works are available in testing or comparing the methods, proposing new methods for risk management, modeling, uncertainty treatment. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the evolution of marine accident-related research domain regarding inland waterway of Bangladesh and attempts to introduce new ideas and methods to abridge the gap between international and national inland maritime-related work domain which can be a catalyst for a safer and sustainable water transportation system in Bangladesh. Another fundamental objective of this paper is to navigate various national maritime authorities and international organizations to implement risk management processes for shipping accident prevention in waterway areas.

Keywords: inland waterways, safety, bibliometric analysis, risk management, accidents

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Authors: Adam Fheed

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Carbonate porosity can be deceptive in the aspect of hydrocarbon exploration due to pore geometry variations, which are to some extent controlled by fossils. Therefore, the main aim of this paper was to assess the dependence of pore geometry and reservoir quality on fossils. The Permian Zechstein Limestone (Ca1) carbonates from the Brońsko Reef, located on the Wolsztyn Ridge in West Poland, were examined. Seventy meters of drill cores were described along with well log examination and transmitted-light microscope research. The archival porosity-permeability data was utilized to calibrate the well logs and look for the potential petrophysical trends. Several organism assemblages were recognized in the reef. Its bottom was colonized by the branched bryozoans which were fragmented and dissolved leaving poorly connected molds. Subsequently, numerous bivalves and gastropods appeared and their shells were heavily dissolved to form huge, albeit poorly communicated caverns. Such pores were also typical for local brachiopod occurrences. Although the caverns were widespread, and probably linked to the meteoric dissolution or freshwater flushing, severe anhydrite cementation has destroyed the majority of pores. Close to the top of Ca1, near the center of the reef, the fossil-rich zone comprising fenestrate bryozoans, extremely abundant encrusting foraminifers, bivalves, brachiopods, gastropods and ostracods, was identified. The zone contained extremely frequent dissolution channels formed within former shells of foraminifers, which had previously encrusted the bryozoans. The deposition of Ca1 strata has ultimately terminated with a poorly porous and generally impermeable stromatolitic layer containing scarce fossils. In general, the permeability of the reef rocks studied turned out to be the highest under the presence of foraminifer-related channels. In such cases, it frequently approached 100 mD. The presence of channels and other pores gave the average effective porosity derived from shallow resistivity and helium porosimetry of around 16 and 18 %, respectively. The highest porosity (over 18 %), often co-occurring with relatively low permeability (chiefly below 20 mD) was noted for the bottommost zone of the reef, represented by branched bryozoans. This is probably owing to a large amount of unconnected bryozoan-related molds. It was concluded that fossils played a major role in porosity formation and controlled the pore geometry significantly. While the dissolution of bivalves and brachiopods resulted in cavernous porosity formation, numerous molds were typically related with the alteration of branched bryozoans, gastropods and ostracods. Importantly, the bendy dissolution channels after the encrusting foraminifers appeared to be decisive in improving reservoir quality – specifically when permeability is considered. Acknowledgment: The research was financed by the Polish National Science Centre’s project No. UMO-2016/23/N/ST10/00350.

Keywords: dissolution channels, fossils, Permian, porosity

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Authors: Md. Soebur Rahman, Mahbuba Begum, Raquib Ahsan

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Composite column is a structural member that uses a combination of structural steel shapes, pipes or tubes with or without reinforcing steel bars and reinforced concrete to provide adequate load carrying capacity to sustain either axial compressive loads alone or a combination of axial loads and bending moments. Composite construction takes the advantages of the speed of construction, light weight and strength of steel, and the higher mass, stiffness, damping properties and economy of reinforced concrete. The most usual types of composite columns are the concrete filled steel tubes and the partially or fully encased steel profiles. Fully encased composite column (FEC) provides compressive strength, stability, stiffness, improved fire proofing and better corrosion protection. This paper reports experimental and numerical investigations of the behaviour of concrete encased steel composite columns subjected to short-term axial load. In this study, eleven short FEC columns with square shaped cross section were constructed and tested to examine the load-deflection behavior. The main variables in the test were considered as concrete compressive strength, cross sectional size and percentage of structural steel. A nonlinear 3-D finite element (FE) model has been developed to analyse the inelastic behaviour of steel, concrete, and longitudinal reinforcement as well as the effect of concrete confinement of the FEC columns. FE models have been validated against the current experimental study conduct in the laboratory and published experimental results under concentric load. It has been observed that FE model is able to predict the experimental behaviour of FEC columns under concentric gravity loads with good accuracy. Good agreement has been achieved between the complete experimental and the numerical load-deflection behaviour in this study. The capacities of each constituent of FEC columns such as structural steel, concrete and rebar's were also determined from the numerical study. Concrete is observed to provide around 57% of the total axial capacity of the column whereas the steel I-sections contributes to the rest of the capacity as well as ductility of the overall system. The nonlinear FE model developed in this study is also used to explore the effect of concrete strength and percentage of structural steel on the behaviour of FEC columns under concentric loads. The axial capacity of FEC columns has been found to increase significantly by increasing the strength of concrete.

Keywords: composite, columns, experimental, finite element, fully encased, strength

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Authors: Moshiur Rahman, Tahmida Jakia

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Bangladesh, a densely populated South Asian country is home to more than 160 million people. In two decades ago, the people of this developing nation drank heavily contaminated surface water. Over the past thirty years, the country, and its development partners, has undertaken extensive efforts to provide microbiologically safe groundwater based drinking water through the use of tube-wells. About 85% of the people now drink tube-well water from about 11 million tube-wells/hand pumps. However, diarrhoeal and other water-related diseases are still reported among the major causes of morbidity and mortality among Bangladeshi children. This implies that the mode of transmission of pathogens through water and/or other modes continue. In addition, massive scale arsenic contamination has been recently reported in the ground water. Thirty five million people may be at risk of consuming arsenic contaminated water exceeding 0.05 mg/l in Bangladesh. Drinking of arsenic contaminated water has been linked with skin problems, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neurological diseases, eye problems, cancer of the internal organs, and other diseases. In the study area, Narail district, recent investigations about existing water quality situations indicated presence of low to high levels of arsenic, salinity, iron, manganese and bacteriological contamination risks. As challenges for safe water exist; it is likely that sanitation and food hygiene practices are poor which lead threat to ensure food security.The main attempt of this study is to find out the challenges to ensure food security andprovide probable solutions to ensure food safety towards 0.7 million of people in study area. A survey has been conducted at Lohagara and Kalia sub district of Narail district with a pretested questionnaire. Primary data are collected through a questionnaire, while secondary data are collected from pertinent offices as well as academic journals. FGD has also been done to know the knowledge regarding water, sanitation as well as food preparation and consumption practice of community people in study area. The major focus of this study is to assess the state of sanitation and food hygiene condition of rural people. It is found that most of the villagers have lack of knowledge about food safety. Open defecation rate is high which lead threat to ensure food security.

Keywords: food safety, challenges, hygiene, Bangladesh

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Authors: Kanchan Mondal, Adam Sims, Madhav Soti, Jitendra Gautam, David Carron

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Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis is a complex series of heterogeneous reactions between CO and H2 molecules (present in the syngas) on the surface of an active catalyst (Co, Fe, Ru, Ni, etc.) to produce gaseous, liquid, and waxy hydrocarbons. This product is composed of paraffins, olefins, and oxygenated compounds. The key challenge in applying the Fischer-Tropsch process to produce transportation fuels is to make the capital and production costs economically feasible relative to the comparative cost of existing petroleum resources. To meet this challenge, it is imperative to enhance the CO conversion while maximizing carbon selectivity towards the desired liquid hydrocarbon ranges (i.e. reduction in CH4 and CO2 selectivities) at high throughputs. At the same time, it is equally essential to increase the catalyst robustness and longevity without sacrificing catalyst activity. This paper focuses on process development to achieve the above. The paper describes the influence of operating parameters on Fischer Tropsch synthesis (FTS) from coal derived syngas in supercritical carbon dioxide (ScCO2). In addition, the unreacted gas and solvent recycle was incorporated and the effect of unreacted feed recycle was evaluated. It was expected that with the recycle, the feed rate can be increased. The increase in conversion and liquid selectivity accompanied by the production of narrower carbon number distribution in the product suggest that higher flow rates can and should be used when incorporating exit gas recycle. It was observed that this process was capable of enhancing the hydrocarbon selectivity (nearly 98 % CO conversion), reducing improving the carbon efficiency from 17 % to 51 % in a once through process and further converting 16 % CO2 to liquid with integrated recycle of the product gas stream and increasing the life of the catalyst. Catalyst robustness enhancement has been attributed to the absorption of heat of reaction by the compressed CO2 which reduced the formation of hotspots and the dissolution of waxes by the CO2 solvent which reduced the blinding of active sites. In addition, the recycling the product gas stream reduced the reactor footprint to one-fourth of the once through size and product fractionation utilizing the solvent effects of supercritical CO2 were realized. In addition to the negative CO2 selectivities, methane production was also inhibited and was limited to less than 1.5%. The effect of the process conditions on the life of the catalysts will also be presented. Fe based catalysts are known to have a high proclivity for producing CO2 during FTS. The data of the product spectrum and selectivity on Co and Fe-Co based catalysts as well as those obtained from commercial sources will also be presented. The measurable decision criteria were the increase in CO conversion at H2:CO ratio of 1:1 (as commonly found in coal gasification product stream) in supercritical phase as compared to gas phase reaction, decrease in CO2 and CH4 selectivity, overall liquid product distribution, and finally an increase in the life of the catalysts.

Keywords: carbon efficiency, Fischer Tropsch synthesis, low GHG, pressure tunable fractionation

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Authors: S. Yesmin, N. F.Rahman, R. Akther, T. Begum, T. Tahmid, T. Chowdury, S. Afrin, J. D. Hamadani

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Abstract: Maternal depression is one of the risk factors of developmental delay in young children in low-income countries. Maternal depressions during pregnancy are rarely reported in Bangladesh. Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to examine the efficacy of a community based psychosocial intervention on women with mild to moderate depressive illness during the perinatal period and on their children from birth to 12 months on mothers’ mental status and their infants’ growth and development. Methodology: The study followed a prospective longitudinal approach with a randomized controlled design. Total 250 pregnant women aged between 15 and 40 years were enrolled in their third trimester of pregnancy of which 125 women were in the intervention group and 125 in the control group. Women in the intervention group received the “Thinking Healthy (CBT based) program” at their home setting, from their last month of pregnancy till 10 months after delivery. Their children received psychosocial stimulation from birth till 12 months. The following instruments were applied to get the outcome information- Bangla version of Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (BEPDS), Prenatal Attachment Inventory (PAI), Maternal Attachment Inventory (MAI), Bayley Scale of Infant Development-Third version (Bayley–III) and Family Care Indicator (FCI). In addition, sever morbidity; breastfeeding, immunization, socio-economic and demographic information were collected. Data were collected at three time points viz. baseline, midline (6 months after delivery) and endline (12 months after delivery). Results: There was no significant difference between any of the socioeconomic and demographic variables at baseline. A very preliminary analysis of the data shows an intervention effect on Socioemotional behaviour of children at endline (p<0.001), motor development at midline (p=0.016) and at endline (p=0.065), language development at midline (p=0.004) and at endline (p=0.023), cognitive development at midline (p=0.008) and at endline (p=0.002), and quality of psychosocial stimulation at midline (p=0.023) and at endline (p=0.010). EPDS at baseline was not different between the groups (p=0.419), but there was a significant improvement at midline (p=0.027) and at endline (p=0.024) between the groups following the intervention. Conclusion: Psychosocial intervention is found effective in reducing women’s low and moderate depressive illness to cope with mental health problem and improving development of young children in Bangladesh.

Keywords: mental health, maternal depression, infant development, CBT, EPDS

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Authors: Raj Chandran, Saul Datwyler, Jaime Marino, Daniel West, Karla Grasso, Adam Buss, Hina Syed, Zina Al Sahouri, Jennifer Yen, Krista Caudle, Beth McQuiston

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The Alinity i TBI test is Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) registered and is a panel of in vitro diagnostic chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassays for the measurement of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) in plasma and serum. The Alinity i TBI performance was evaluated in a multi-center pivotal study to demonstrate the capability to assist in determining the need for a CT scan of the head in adult subjects (age 18+) presenting with suspected mild TBI (traumatic brain injury) with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 13 to 15. TBI has been recognized as an important cause of death and disability and is a growing public health problem. An estimated 69 million people globally experience a TBI annually1. Blood-based biomarkers such as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) have shown utility to predict acute traumatic intracranial injury on head CT scans after TBI. A pivotal study using prospectively collected archived (frozen) plasma specimens was conducted to establish the clinical performance of the TBI test on the Alinity i system. The specimens were originally collected in a prospective, multi-center clinical study. Testing of the specimens was performed at three clinical sites in the United States. Performance characteristics such as detection limits, imprecision, linearity, measuring interval, expected values, and interferences were established following Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidance. Of the 1899 mild TBI subjects, 120 had positive head CT scan results; 116 of the 120 specimens had a positive TBI interpretation (Sensitivity 96.7%; 95% CI: 91.7%, 98.7%). Of the 1779 subjects with negative CT scan results, 713 had a negative TBI interpretation (Specificity 40.1%; 95% CI: 37.8, 42.4). The negative predictive value (NPV) of the test was 99.4% (713/717, 95% CI: 98.6%, 99.8%). The analytical measuring interval (AMI) extends from the limit of quantitation (LoQ) to the upper LoQ and is determined by the range that demonstrates acceptable performance for linearity, imprecision, and bias. The AMI is 6.1 to 42,000 pg/mL for GFAP and 26.3 to 25,000 pg/mL for UCH-L1. Overall, within-laboratory imprecision (20 day) ranged from 3.7 to 5.9% CV for GFAP and 3.0 to 6.0% CV for UCH-L1, when including lot and instrument variances. The Alinity i TBI clinical performance results demonstrated high sensitivity and high NPV, supporting the utility to assist in determining the need for a head CT scan in subjects presenting to the emergency department with suspected mild TBI. The GFAP and UCH-L1 assays show robust analytical performance across a broad concentration range of GFAP and UCH-L1 and may serve as a valuable tool to help evaluate TBI patients across the spectrum of mild to severe injury.

Keywords: biomarker, diagnostic, neurology, TBI

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Authors: Begum Rokeya, Rahelee Zinnat, Fatema Jebunnesa, Israt Ara Hossain, A. Rahman

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Background and Aims: Arsenic in drinking water is a global environmental health problem, and the exposure may increase dyslipidemia and cerebrovascular diseases mortalities, most likely through causing atherosclerosis. However, the mechanism of lipid metabolism, atherosclerosis formation, arsenic exposure and impact in pregnancy is still unclear. Recent epidemiological evidences indicate close association between inorganic arsenic exposure via drinking water and Dyslipidemia. However, the exact mechanism of this arsenic-mediated increase in atherosclerosis risk factors remains enigmatic. We explore the association of the effect of arsenic on serum lipid profile in pregnant subjects. Methods: A total 200 pregnant mother screened in this study from arsenic exposed area. Our study group included 100 exposed subjects were cases and 100 Non exposed healthy pregnant were controls requited by a cross-sectional study. Clinical and anthropometric measurements were done by standard techniques. Lipidemic status was assessed by enzymatic endpoint method. Urinary As was measured by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and adjusted with specific gravity and Arsenic exposure was assessed by the level of urinary arsenic level > 100 μg/L was categorized as arsenic exposed and < 100 μg/L were categorized as non-exposed. Multivariate logistic regression and Student’s t - test was used for statistical analysis. Results: Systolic and diastolic blood pressure both were significantly higher in the Arsenic exposed pregnant subjects compared to the Non-exposed group (p<0.001). Arsenic exposed subjects had 2 times higher chance of developing hypertensive pregnancy (Odds Ratio 2.2). In parallel to the findings in Ar exposed subjects showed significantly higher proportion of triglyceride and total cholesterol and low density of lipo protein when compare to non- arsenic exposed pregnant subjects. Significant correlation of urinary arsenic level was also found with SBP, DBP, TG, T chol and serum LDL-Cholesterol. On multivariate logistic regression showed urinary arsenic had a positive association with DBP, SBP, Triglyceride and LDL-c. Conclusion: In conclusion, arsenic exposure may induce dyslipidemia like atherosclerosis through modifying reverse cholesterol transport in cholesterol metabolism. For decreasing atherosclerosis related mortality associated with arsenic, preventing exposure from environmental sources in early life is an important element.

Keywords: Arsenic Exposure, Dyslipidemia, Gestational Diabetes Mellitus, Serum lipid profile

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Authors: Yiorgos Hadjichristou

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The paper will focus on the strategic development deriving from the evolution of the traditional courtyard spatial organization towards a new, contemporary sustainable way of living. New sustainable approaches that engulf the social issues, the notion of place, the understanding of weather architecture blended together with the bioclimatic behaviour will be seen through a series of experimental case studies in the island of Cyprus, inspired and originated from its traditional wisdom, ranging from small scale of living to urban interventions. Weather and nature will be seen as co-architectural authors with architects as intelligently claimed by Jonathan Hill in his Weather Architecture discourse. Furthermore, following Pallasmaa’s understanding, the building will be seen not as an end itself and the elements of an architectural experience as having a verb form rather than being nouns. This will further enhance the notion of merging the subject-human and the object-building as discussed by Julio Bermudez. This eventually will enable to generate the discussion of the understanding of the building constructed according to the specifics of place and inhabitants, shaped by its physical and human topography as referred by Adam Sharr in relation to Heidegger’s thinking. The specificities of the divided island and the dealing with sites that are in vicinity with the diving Green Line will further trigger explorations dealing with the regeneration issues and the social sustainability offering unprecedented opportunities for innovative sustainable ways of living. The above premises will lead us to develop innovative strategies for a profound, both technical and social sustainability, which fruitfully yields to innovative living built environments, responding to the ever changing environmental and social needs. As a starting point, a case study in Kaimakli in Nicosia a refurbishment with an extension of a traditional house, already engulfs all the traditional/ vernacular wisdom of the bioclimatic architecture. It aims at capturing not only its direct and quite obvious bioclimatic features, but rather to evolve them by adjusting the whole house in a contemporary living environment. In order to succeed this, evolutions of traditional architectural elements and spatial conditions are integrated in a way that does not only respond to some certain weather conditions, but they integrate and blend the weather within the built environment. A series of innovations aiming at maximum flexibility is proposed. The house can finally be transformed into a winter enclosure, while for the most part of the year it turns into a ‘camping’ living environment. Parallel to experimental interventions in existing traditional units, we will proceed examining the implementation of the same developed methodology in designing living units and complexes. Malleable courtyard organizations that attempt to blend the traditional wisdom with the contemporary needs for living, the weather and nature with the built environment will be seen tested in both horizontal and vertical developments. A new social identity of people, directly involved and interacting with the weather and climatic conditions will be seen as the result of balancing the social with the technological sustainability, the immaterial and the material aspects of the built environment.

Keywords: building as a verb, contemporary living, traditional bioclimatic wisdom, weather architecture

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Authors: Szymon Kuczynski, Krystian Liszka, Mariusz Laciak, Andrii Oliinyk, Adam Szurlej

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Currently, in automotive transport to power vehicles, almost exclusively hydrocarbon based fuels are used. Due to increase of hydrocarbon fuels consumption, quality parameters are tightend for clean environment. At the same time efforts are undertaken for development of alternative fuels. The reasons why looking for alternative fuels for petroleum and diesel are: to increase vehicle efficiency and to reduce the environmental impact, reduction of greenhouse gases emissions and savings in consumption of limited oil resources. Significant progress was performed on development of alternative fuels such as methanol, ethanol, natural gas (CNG / LNG), LPG, dimethyl ether (DME) and biodiesel. In addition, biggest vehicle manufacturers work on fuel cell vehicles and its introduction to the market. Alcohols such as methanol and ethanol create the perfect fuel for spark-ignition engines. Their advantages are high-value antiknock which determines their application as additive (10%) to unleaded petrol and relative purity of produced exhaust gasses. Ethanol is produced in distillation process of plant products, which value as a food can be irrational. Ethanol production can be costly also for the entire economy of the country, because it requires a large complex distillation plants, large amounts of biomass and finally a significant amount of fuel to sustain the process. At the same time, the fermentation process of plants releases into the atmosphere large quantities of carbon dioxide. Natural gas cannot be directly converted into liquid fuels, although such arrangements have been proposed in the literature. Going through stage of intermediates is inevitable yet. Most popular one is conversion to methanol, which can be processed further to dimethyl ether (DME) or olefin (ethylene and propylene) for the petrochemical sector. Methanol uses natural gas as a raw material, however, requires expensive and advanced production processes. In relation to pollution emissions, the optimal vehicle fuel is LPG which is used in many countries as an engine fuel. Production of LPG is inextricably linked with production and processing of oil and gas, and which represents a small percentage. Its potential as an alternative for traditional fuels is therefore proportionately reduced. Excellent engine fuel may be biogas, however, follows to the same limitations as ethanol - the same production process is used and raw materials. Most essential fuel in the campaign of environment protection against pollution is natural gas. Natural gas as fuel may be either compressed (CNG) or liquefied (LNG). Natural gas can also be used for hydrogen production in steam reforming. Hydrogen can be used as a basic starting material for the chemical industry, an important raw material in the refinery processes, as well as a fuel vehicle transportation. Natural gas can be used as CNG which represents an excellent compromise between the availability of the technology that is proven and relatively cheap to use in many areas of the automotive industry. Natural gas can also be seen as an important bridge to other alternative sources of energy derived from fuel and harmless to the environment. For these reasons CNG as a fuel stimulates considerable interest in the worldwide.

Keywords: alternative fuels, CNG (Compressed Natural Gas), LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas), NGVs (Natural Gas Vehicles)

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Authors: Szymon Kuczynski, Krystian Liszka, Mariusz Laciak, Andrii Oliinyk, Robert Strods, Adam Szurlej

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Despіte all glоbal ecоnоmіc shіfts and the fact that Natural Gas іs recоgnіzed wоrldwіde as the maіn and the leadіng alternatіve tо оіl prоducts іn transpоrtatіоn sectоr, there іs a huge barrіer tо swіtch passenger vehіcle segment tо Natural gas - the lack оf refuelіng іnfrastructure fоr Natural Gas Vehіcles. Whіle іnvestments іn publіc gas statіоns requіre establіshed NGV market іn оrder tо be cоst effectіve, the market іs nоt there due tо lack оf refuelіng statіоns. The key tо sоlvіng that prоblem and prоvіdіng barrіer breakіng refuelіng іnfrastructure sоlutіоn fоr Natural Gas Vehіcles (NGV) іs Hоme Fast Refuelіng Unіts. Іt оperates usіng Natural Gas (Methane), whіch іs beіng prоvіded thrоugh gas pіpelіnes at clіents hоme, and electrіcіty cоnnectіоn pоіnt. Іt enables an envіrоnmentally frіendly NGV’s hоme refuelіng just іn mіnutes. The underlyіng technоlоgy іs a patented technоlоgy оf оne stage hydraulіc cоmpressоr (іnstead оf multіstage mechanіcal cоmpressоr technоlоgy avaіlable оn the market nоw) whіch prоvіdes the pоssіbіlіty tо cоmpress lоw pressure gas frоm resіdentіal gas grіd tо 200 bar fоr іts further usage as a fuel fоr NGVs іn the mоst ecоnоmіcally effіcіent and cоnvenіent fоr custоmer way. Descrіptіоn оf wоrkіng algоrіthm: Twо hіgh pressure cylіnders wіth upper necks cоnnected tо lоw pressure gas sоurce are placed vertіcally. Іnіtіally оne оf them іs fіlled wіth lіquіd and anоther оne – wіth lоw pressure gas. Durіng the wоrkіng prоcess lіquіd іs transferred by means оf hydraulіc pump frоm оne cylіnder tо anоther and back. Wоrkіng lіquіd plays a rоle оf pіstоns іnsіde cylіnders. Mоvement оf wоrkіng lіquіd іnsіde cylіnders prоvіdes sіmultaneоus suctіоn оf a pоrtіоn оf lоw pressure gas іntо оne оf the cylіnder (where lіquіd mоves dоwn) and fоrcіng оut gas оf hіgher pressure frоm anоther cylіnder (where lіquіd mоves up) tо the fuel tank оf the vehіcle / stоrage tank. Each cycle оf fоrcіng the gas оut оf the cylіnder rіses up the pressure оf gas іn the fuel tank оf a vehіcle wіth 2 cylіnders. The prоcess іs repeated untіl the pressure оf gas іn the fuel tank reaches 200 bar. Mоbіlіty has becоme a necessіty іn peоple’s everyday lіfe, whіch led tо оіl dependence. CNG Hоme Fast Refuelіng Unіts can become a part fоr exіstіng natural gas pіpelіne іnfrastructure and becоme the largest vehіcle refuelіng іnfrastructure. Hоme Fast Refuelіng Unіts оwners wіll enjоy day-tо-day tіme savіngs and cоnvenіence - Hоme Car refuelіng іn mіnutes, mоnth-tо-mоnth fuel cоst ecоnоmy, year-tо-year іncentіves and tax deductіbles оn NG refuelіng systems as per cоuntry, reduce CО2 lоcal emіssіоns, savіng cоsts and mоney.

Keywords: CNG (compressed natural gas), CNG stations, NGVs (natural gas vehicles), natural gas

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Authors: Abdul Rahman Hamdan

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The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has brought unprecedented technological advancements that have disrupted many industries worldwide. In keeping up with the technological advances and rapid disruption by the introduction of many technological advancements brought forth by the 4IR, the use of technology road mapping has emerged as one of the critical tools for organizations to leverage. Technology road mapping can be used by many companies to guide them to become more adaptable and anticipate future transformation and innovation, and avoid being redundant or irrelevant due to the rapid changes in technological advancement. This research paper provides a comprehensive analysis of technology road mapping within the context of the 4IR. The objectives of the paper are to provide companies with practical insights and a strategic framework of technology road mapping for them to navigate the fast-changing nature of the 4IR. This study also contributes to the understanding and practice of technology road mapping in the 4IR and, at the same time, provides organizations with the necessary tools and critical insight to navigate the 4IR transformation by leveraging technology road mapping. Based on the literature review and case studies, the study analyses key principles, methodologies, and best practices in technology road mapping and integrates them with the unique characteristics and challenges of the 4IR. The research paper gives the background of the fourth industrial revolution. It explores the disruptive potential of technologies in the 4IR and the critical need for technology road mapping that consists of strategic planning and foresight to remain competitive and relevant in the 4IR era. It also highlights the importance of technology road mapping as an organisation’s proactive approach to align the organisation’s objectives and resources to their technology and product development in meeting the fast-evolving technological 4IR landscape. The paper also includes the theoretical foundations of technology road mapping and examines various methodological approaches, and identifies external stakeholders in the process, such as external experts, stakeholders, collaborative platforms, and cross-functional teams to ensure an integrated and robust technological roadmap for the organisation. Moreover, this study presents a comprehensive framework for technology road mapping in the 4IR by incorporating key elements and processes such as technology assessment, competitive intelligence, risk analysis, and resource allocation. It provides a framework for implementing technology road mapping from strategic planning, goal setting, and technology scanning to road mapping visualisation, implementation planning, monitoring, and evaluation. In addition, the study also addresses the challenges and limitations related to technology roadmapping in 4IR, including the gap analysis. In conclusion of the study, the study will propose a set of practical recommendations for organizations that intend to leverage technology road mapping as a strategic tool in the 4IR in driving innovation and becoming competitive in the current and future ecosystem.

Keywords: technology management, technology road mapping, technology transfer, technology planning

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Authors: Audia Syafa'atur Rahman, Rozali Haron

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The practices of Islamic banking are more attuned to the goals of profit maximization rather than obtaining ethical profit. Ethical profit is obtained from interest-free earnings and to give an impact which benefits to the growth of society and economy. Good corporate governance practices are needed to assure the sustainability of Islamic banks in order to achieve Maqasid Shariah with the main purpose of boosting the well-being of people. The Maqasid Shariah performance measurement is used to measure the duties and responsibilities expected to be performed by Islamic banks. It covers not only unification dimension like financial measurement, but also many dimensions covered to reflect the main purpose of Islamic banks. The implementation of good corporate governance is essential because it covers the interests of the stakeholders and facilitates effective monitoring to encourage Islamic banks to utilize resources more efficiently in order to achieve the Maqasid Shariah. This study aims to provide the empirical evidence on the Maqasid performance of Islamic banks in relation to the Maqasid performance evaluation model, to examine the influence of SSB characteristics and board structures to Islamic Banks performance as measured by Maqasid performance evaluation model. By employing the simple additive weighting method, Maqasid index for all the Islamic Banks in Indonesia within 2012 to 2016 ranged from above 11% to 28%. The Maqasid Syariah performance index where results reached above 20% are obtained by Islamic Banks such as Bank Muamalat Indonesia, Bank Panin Syariah, and Bank BRI Syariah. The consistent achievement above 23% is achieved by BMI. Other Islamic Banks such as Bank Victoria Syariah, Bank Jabar Banten Syariah, Bank BNI Syariah, Bank Mega Syariah, BCA Syariah, and Maybank Syariah Indonesia shows a fluctuating value of the Maqasid performance index every year. The impact of SSB characteristics and board structures are tested using random-effects generalized least square. The findings indicate that SSB characteristics (Shariah Supervisory Board size, Shariah Supervisory Board cross membership, Shariah Supervisory Board Education, and Shariah Supervisory Board reputation) and board structures (Board size and Board independence) have an essential role in improving the performance of Islamic Banks. The findings denote Shariah Supervisory Board with smaller size, higher portion of Shariah Supervisory Board cross membership; lesser Shariah Supervisory Board holds doctorate degree, lesser reputable scholar, more members on board of directors, and less independence non-executive directors will enhance the performance of Islamic Banks.

Keywords: Maqasid Shariah, corporate governance, Islamic banks, Shariah supervisory board

Procedia PDF Downloads 212

Authors: Malahat Rezaee, Mahiran Basri, Raja Noor Zaliha Raja Abdul Rahman, Abu Bakar Salleh

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Sodium diclofenac is one of the most commonly used drugs of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). It is especially effective in the controlling the severe conditions of inflammation and pain, musculoskeletal disorders, arthritis, and dysmenorrhea. Formulation as nanoemulsions is one of the nanoscience approaches that have been progressively considered in pharmaceutical science for transdermal delivery of drug. Nanoemulsions are a type of emulsion with particle sizes ranging from 20 nm to 200 nm. An emulsion is formed by the dispersion of one liquid, usually the oil phase in another immiscible liquid, water phase that is stabilized using surfactant. Palm kernel oil esters (PKOEs), in comparison to other oils; contain higher amounts of shorter chain esters, which suitable to be applied in micro and nanoemulsion systems as a carrier for actives, with excellent wetting behavior without the oily feeling. This research was aimed to study the effect of O/S ratio on stability and rheological behavior of sodium diclofenac loaded and unloaded palm kernel oil esters nanoemulsion systems. The effect of different O/S ratio of 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00 and 1.25 on stability of the drug-loaded and unloaded nanoemulsion formulations was evaluated by centrifugation, freeze-thaw cycle and storage stability tests. Lecithin and cremophor EL were used as surfactant. The stability of the prepared nanoemulsion formulations was assessed based on the change in zeta potential and droplet size as a function of time. Instability mechanisms including coalescence and Ostwald ripening for the nanoemulsion system were discussed. In comparison between drug-loaded and unloaded nanoemulsion formulations, drug-loaded formulations represented smaller particle size and higher stability. In addition, the O/S ratio of 0.5 was found to be the best ratio of oil and surfactant for production of a nanoemulsion with the highest stability. The effect of O/S ratio on rheological properties of drug-loaded and unloaded nanoemulsion systems was studied by plotting the flow curves of shear stress (τ) and viscosity (η) as a function of shear rate (γ). The data were fitted to the Power Law model. The results showed that all nanoemulsion formulations exhibited non-Newtonian flow behaviour by displaying shear thinning behaviour. Viscosity and yield stress were also evaluated. The nanoemulsion formulation with the O/S ratio of 0.5 represented higher viscosity and K values. In addition, the sodium diclofenac loaded formulations had more viscosity and higher yield stress than drug-unloaded formulations.

Keywords: nanoemulsions, palm kernel oil esters, sodium diclofenac, rheoligy, stability

Procedia PDF Downloads 390

Authors: Mohammed Khalil Ur Rahman, Mohammed Alsharon, Arshad Muktar, Zahid Shaik

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Any ailment can go into terminal stages, cancer being one such disease which is many times detected in latent stages. Cancer is often characterized by constitutional symptoms which are agonizing in nature which disturbs patients and their family as well. In order to relieve such intolerable symptoms treatment modality employed is known to be ‘Palliative Care’. The goal of palliative care is to enhance patient’s quality of life by relieving or rather reducing the distressing symptoms of patients such as pain, nausea/ vomiting, anorexia/loss of appetite, excessive salivation, mouth ulcers, weight loss, constipation, oral thrush, emaciation etc. which are due to the effect of disease or due to the undergoing treatment such as chemotherapy, radiation etc. Ayurveda and Unani as well as other traditional medicines is getting more and more international attention in recent years and Ayurveda and Unani holistic perspective of the disease, it seems that there are many herbs and herbomineral preparation which can be employed in the treatment of malignancy and also in palliative care. Though many of them have yet to be scientifically proved as anti-cancerous but there is definitely a positive lead that some of these medications relieve the agonising symptoms thereby making life of the patient easy. Health is viewed in Islam in a holistic way. One of the names of the Quran is al-shifa' meaning ‘that which heals’ or ‘the restorer of health’ to refer to spiritual, intellectual, psychological, and physical health. The general aim of medical science, according to Islam, is to secure and adopt suitable measures which, with Allah’s permission, help to preserve or restore the health of the human body. Islam motivates the Physician to view the patient as one organism. The patient has physical, social, psychological, and spiritual dimensions that must be considered in synthesis with an integrated, holistic approach. Aims & Objectives: - To suggest herbs which are mentioned in Ayurveda Unani with potential palliative activity in case of Cancer patients. - Most of tibb nabawi [Prophetic Medicine] is preventive medicine and must have been divinely inspired. - Spiritual Aspects of Healing: Prayer, dua, recitation of the Quran - Remembrance of Allah play a central role.Materials & Method: Literary review of the herbs supported with experiential evidence will be discussed. Discussion: On the basis of collected data subject will be discussed in length. Conclusion: Will be presented in paper.

Keywords: palliative care, holistic, Ayurvedic and Unani traditional system of medicine, Quran, hadith

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Authors: Aklima Jesmin, Ubaidur Rob, M. Ashrafur Rahman

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Rohingya population of Arakan state in Myanmar are one the most persecuted ethnic minorities in this 21st century. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), all human beings are born free, equal in dignity and rights. However, these populations are systematically excluded from this universal proclamation of human rights as they are Rohingya, which signify ‘other’. Based on the accessible and available literatures about Rohingya issue, this study firstly found there are chronological pattern of human rights violations against the ethnic Rohingya which follows the pathology of the Holocaust in this 21st century of human civilization. These violations have been possible due to modern technology, bureaucracy which has been performed through authorization, routinization and dehumanization; not only in formal institutions but in the society as a whole. This kind of apparently never-ending situation poses any author with the problem of available many scientific articles. The most important sources are, therefore the international daily newspapers, social media and official webpage of the non-state actors for nitty-gritty day to day update. Although it challenges the validity and objectivity of the information, but to address the critical ongoing human rights violations against Rohingya population can become a base for further work on this issue. One of the aspects of this paper is to accommodate all the social movements since August 2017 to date. The findings of this paper is that even though it seemed only human rights violations occurred against Rohingya historically but, simultaneously the process of social movements had also started, can be traced more after the military campaign in 2017. Therefore, the Rohingya crisis can be conceptualized within one ‘campaign’ movement for justice, not as episodic events, especially within the Political Process Model than any other social movement theories. This model identifies that the role of international political movements as well as the role of non-state actors are more powerful than any other episodes of violence conducted against Rohinyga in reframing issue, blaming and shaming to Myanmar government and creating the strategic opportunities for social changes. The lack of empowerment of the affected Rohingya population has been found as the loop to utilize this strategic opportunity. Their lack of empowerment can also affect their capacity to reframe their rights and to manage the campaign for their justice. Therefore, this should be placed at the heart of the international policy agenda within the broader socio-political movement for the justice of Rohingya population. Without ensuring human rights of Rohingya population, achieving the promise of the united nation’s sustainable development goals - no one would be excluded – will be impossible.

Keywords: civilization, holocaust, human rights violation, military campaign, political process model, Rohingya population, sustainable development goal, social justice, social movement, strategic opportunity

Procedia PDF Downloads 257

Authors: R. A. Abdel Rahman, A. E. Abdel Wahab, E. A. Goghneimy, H. F. Mohamed, E. M. Salama

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Infectious diseases are a major cause of death worldwide. The treatment of infections continues to be problematic in modern time because of the severe side effects of some drugs and the growing resistance to antimicrobial agents. Hence, the search for newer, safer and more potent antimicrobials is a pressing need. Herbal medicines have received much attention as a source of new antibacterial drugs since they are considered time-tested and comparatively safe both for human use and the environment. In the present study, the antimicrobial activity of marjoram (Origanum majorana L.) essential oil on some gram positive and gram negative reference bacteria, as well as some hospital resistant microbes, was tested. Marjoram oil was extracted and the oil chemical constituents were identified using GC/MS analysis. Staphylococcus aureas ATCC 6923, Pseudomonus auregonosa ATCC 9027, Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, E. coli ATCC 8736 and two hospital resistant microbes isolates 16 and 21 were used. The two isolates were identified by biochemical tests and 16s rRNA as proteus spp. and Enterococcus facielus. The effect of different concentrations of essential oils on bacterial growth was tested using agar disk diffusion assay method to determine the minimum inhibitory concentrations and using micro dilution method to determine the minimum bactericidal concentrations. Marjoram oil was found to be effective against both reference and hospital resistance strains. Hospital strains were more resistant to marjoram oil than reference strains. P. auregonosa growth was completely inhibited at a low concentration of oil (4µl/ml). The other reference strains showed sensitivity to marjoram oil at concentrations ranged from 5 to 7µl/ml. The two hospital strains showed sensitivity at media containing 10 and 15µl/ml oil. The major components of oil were terpineol, cis-beta (23.5%), 1,6 – octadien –3-ol,3,7-dimethyl, 2 aminobenzoate (10.9%), alpha terpieol (8.6%) and linalool (6.3%). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis were used to determine the difference between treated and untreated hospital strains. SEM results showed that treated cells were smaller in size than control cells. TEM data showed that cell lysis has occurred to treated cells. Treated cells have ruptured cell wall and appeared empty of cytoplasm compared to control cells which shown to be intact with normal volume of cytoplasm. The results indicated that marjoram oil has a positive antimicrobial effect on hospital resistance microbes. Natural crude extracts can be perfect resources for new antimicrobial drugs.

Keywords: antimicrobial activity, essential oil, hospital resistance microbes, marjoram

Procedia PDF Downloads 418

Authors: Armin Nabaei, M. Omair Ahmad, M. N. S. Swamy

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Many facial expression and emotion recognition methods in the traditional approaches of using LDA, PCA, and EBGM have been proposed. In recent years deep learning models have provided a unique platform addressing by automatically extracting the features for the detection of facial expression and emotions. However, deep networks require large training datasets to extract automatic features effectively. In this work, we propose an efficient emotion detection algorithm using face images when only small datasets are available for training. We design a deep network whose feature extraction capability is enhanced by utilizing several parallel modules between the input and output of the network, each focusing on the extraction of different types of coarse features with fined grained details to break the symmetry of produced information. In fact, we leverage long range dependencies, which is one of the main drawback of CNNs. We develop this work by introducing a Dynamic Soft-Margin SoftMax.The conventional SoftMax suffers from reaching to gold labels very soon, which take the model to over-fitting. Because it’s not able to determine adequately discriminant feature vectors for some variant class labels. We reduced the risk of over-fitting by using a dynamic shape of input tensor instead of static in SoftMax layer with specifying a desired Soft- Margin. In fact, it acts as a controller to how hard the model should work to push dissimilar embedding vectors apart. For the proposed Categorical Loss, by the objective of compacting the same class labels and separating different class labels in the normalized log domain.We select penalty for those predictions with high divergence from ground-truth labels.So, we shorten correct feature vectors and enlarge false prediction tensors, it means we assign more weights for those classes with conjunction to each other (namely, “hard labels to learn”). By doing this work, we constrain the model to generate more discriminate feature vectors for variant class labels. Finally, for the proposed optimizer, our focus is on solving weak convergence of Adam optimizer for a non-convex problem. Our noteworthy optimizer is working by an alternative updating gradient procedure with an exponential weighted moving average function for faster convergence and exploiting a weight decay method to help drastically reducing the learning rate near optima to reach the dominant local minimum. We demonstrate the superiority of our proposed work by surpassing the first rank of three widely used Facial Expression Recognition datasets with 93.30% on FER-2013, and 16% improvement compare to the first rank after 10 years, reaching to 90.73% on RAF-DB, and 100% k-fold average accuracy for CK+ dataset, and shown to provide a top performance to that provided by other networks, which require much larger training datasets.

Keywords: computer vision, facial expression recognition, machine learning, algorithms, depp learning, neural networks

Procedia PDF Downloads 52

Authors: Mokhlisur Rahman

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The growing consensus among scientists and world leaders indicates that immediate action should be considered regarding the climate change phenomenon. However, climate change is no more a global issue but a personal one. Thus, individual participation is necessary to address such a significant issue. Studies show that individuals who perceive climate change as a personal issue are more likely to act toward it. This abstract presents augmented reality (A.R.) technology in the social media platform Facebook video advertising. The idea involves creating a video advertisement that enables users to interact with the video by navigating its features and experiencing the result uniquely and engagingly. This advertisement uses A.R. to bring changes, such as people making changes in real-life scenarios by simple clicks on the video and hearing an instant rewarding fact about their choices. The video shows three options: room, lawn, and driveway. Users select one option and engage in interaction based on while holding the camera in their personal spaces: Suppose users select the first option, room, and hold their camera toward spots such as by the windows, balcony, corners, and even walls. In that case, the A.R. offers users different plants appropriate for those unoccupied spaces in the room. Users can change the options of the plants and see which space at their house deserves a plant that makes it more natural. When a user adds a natural element to the video, the video content explains a piece of beneficiary information about how the user contributes to the world more to be livable and why it is necessary. With the help of A.R., if users select the second option, lawn, and hold their camera toward their lawn, the options are various small trees for their lawn to make it more environmentally friendly and decorative. The video plays a beneficiary explanation here too. Suppose users select the third option, driveway, and hold their camera toward their driveway. In that case, the A.R. video option offers unique recycle bin designs using A.I. measurement of spaces. The video plays audio information on anthropogenic contribution to greenhouse gas emission. IoT embeds tracking code in the video ad on Facebook, which stores the exact number of views in the cloud for data analysis. An online survey at the end collects short qualitative answers. This study helps understand the number of users involved and willing to change their behavior; It makes personalized advertising in social media. Considering the current state of climate change, the urgency for action is increasing. This ad increases the chance to make direct connections with individuals and gives a sense of personal responsibility for climate change to act

Keywords: motivations, climate, iot, personalized-advertising, action

Procedia PDF Downloads 48

Authors: Monika Sobolewska, Aleksandra Majchrzak, Bartlomiej Chojnacki, Katarzyna Baruch, Adam Pilch

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The main purpose of the study is to perform the measurement and analysis of noise harmfulness in public utility facilities. The World Health Organization reports that the number of people suffering from hearing impairment is constantly increasing. The most alarming is the number of young people occurring in the statistics. The majority of scientific research in the field of hearing protection and noise prevention concern industrial and road traffic noise as the source of health problems. As the result, corresponding standards and regulations defining noise level limits are enforced. However, there is another field uncovered by profound research – leisure time. Public utility facilities such as clubs, shopping malls, sport facilities or concert halls – they all generate high-level noise, being out of proper juridical control. Among European Union Member States, the highest legislative act concerning noise prevention is the Environmental Noise Directive 2002/49/EC. However, it omits the problem discussed above and even for traffic, railway and aircraft noise it does not set limits or target values, leaving these issues to the discretion of the Member State authorities. Without explicit and uniform regulations, noise level control at places designed for relaxation and entertainment is often in the responsibility of people having little knowledge of hearing protection, unaware of the risk the noise pollution poses. Exposure to high sound levels in clubs, cinemas, at concerts and sports events may result in a progressive hearing loss, especially among young people, being the main target group of such facilities and events. The first step to change this situation and to raise the general awareness is to perform reliable measurements the results of which will emphasize the significance of the problem. This project presents the results of more than hundred measurements, performed in most types of public utility facilities in Poland. As the most suitable measuring instrument for such a research, personal noise dosimeters were used to collect the data. Each measurement is presented in the form of numerical results including equivalent and peak sound pressure levels and a detailed description considering the type of the sound source, size and furnishing of the room and the subjective sound level evaluation. In the absence of a straight reference point for the interpretation of the data, the limits specified in EU Directive 2003/10/EC were used for comparison. They set the maximum sound level values for workers in relation to their working time length. The analysis of the examined problem leads to the conclusion that during leisure time, people are exposed to noise levels significantly exceeding safe values. As the hearing problems are gradually progressing, most people underplay the problem, ignoring the first symptoms. Therefore, an effort has to be made to specify the noise regulations for public utility facilities. Without any action, in the foreseeable future the majority of Europeans will be dealing with serious hearing damage, which will have a negative impact on the whole societies.

Keywords: hearing protection, noise level limits, noise prevention, noise regulations, public utility facilities

Procedia PDF Downloads 192

Authors: Anisur Rahman, Sabyasachi Behera, Pawan Pathak, Benazir Patil, Rajesh Khanna

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Background: Nearly half of India’s population is expected to reside in urban areas by 2030. The extent to which India's health system can provide for this large and growing city-based population will determine the country's success in achieving universal health coverage and improved national health indices. National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) strive for improving access to primary health care in urban areas. Implementation of NUHM solicits sensitive, effective and sustainable strategies to strengthen the service delivery mechanisms. The Challenge Initiative for Healthy Cities (TCIHC) is working with the Government of India and three provincial states to develop effective service delivery mechanisms for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) through a health systems approach for the urban poor. Method: A rapid assessment study was conceptualized and executed to generate evidence in order to address the challenges impeding in functioning of urban health facilities to deliver effective, efficient and equitable health care services in 7 cities spread across two project States viz. Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. Results: The findings of the assessment reflect: 1. The overall ecosystem pertaining to planning and management of public health interventions is not conducive. 2. The challenges regarding population dynamics like migration keeps on influencing the demand-supply-enabling environment triangle for both public and private service providers. 3. Lack of norms for planning and benchmark for service delivery further impedes urban health system as a whole. 4. Operationalization of primary level services have enough potential to meet the demand of slum dwellers at large. 5. Lack of policy driven strategies on how to integrate the NUHM with other thematic areas of Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (MNCH) and Family Planning (FP). 5. The inappropriate capacity building and acute shortage of Human Resources has huge implication on service provisioning and adherence to the service delivery protocols. Conclusion: The findings from rapid assessment are aimed to inform pertinent stakeholders to develop a multiyear city health action plan to strengthen the health systems in order to improve the efficacy of service delivery mechanism in urban settings.

Keywords: city health plan, health system, rapid assessment, urban mission

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Authors: Piotr Romaniuk, Krzysztof Kaczmarek, Adam Szromek

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Background: A number of approaches to assess the performance of health system have been proposed so far. Nonetheless, they lack a consensus regarding the key components of assessment procedure and criteria of evaluation. The WHO and OECD have developed methods of assessing health system to counteract the underlying issues, but they are not free of controversies and did not manage to produce a commonly accepted consensus. The aim of the study: On the basis of WHO and OECD approaches we decided to develop own methodology to assess the performance of health systems in Central and Eastern European countries. We have applied the method to compare the effects of health systems reforms in 20 countries of the region, in order to evaluate the dynamic of changes in terms of health system outcomes.Methods: Data was collected from a 25-year time period after the fall of communism, subsetted into different post-reform stages. Datasets collected from individual countries underwent one-, two- or multi-dimensional statistical analyses, and the Synthetic Measure of health system Outcomes (SMO) was calculated, on the basis of the method of zeroed unitarization. A map of dynamics of changes over time across the region was constructed. Results: When making a comparative analysis of the tested group in terms of the average SMO value throughout the analyzed period, we noticed some differences, although the gaps between individual countries were small. The countries with the highest SMO were the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Hungary and Slovenia, while the lowest was in Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Georgia, Albania, and Armenia. Countries differ in terms of the range of SMO value changes throughout the analyzed period. The dynamics of change is high in the case of Estonia and Latvia, moderate in the case of Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Croatia, Russia and Moldova, and small when it comes to Belarus, Ukraine, Macedonia, Lithuania, and Georgia. This information reveals fluctuation dynamics of the measured value in time, yet it does not necessarily mean that in such a dynamic range an improvement appears in a given country. In reality, some of the countries moved from on the scale with different effects. Albania decreased the level of health system outcomes while Armenia and Georgia made progress, but lost distance to leaders in the region. On the other hand, Latvia and Estonia showed the most dynamic progress in improving the outcomes. Conclusions: Countries that have decided to implement comprehensive health reform have achieved a positive result in terms of further improvements in health system efficiency levels. Besides, a higher level of efficiency during the initial transition period generally positively determined the subsequent value of the efficiency index value, but not the dynamics of change. The paths of health system outcomes improvement are highly diverse between different countries. The instrument we propose constitutes a useful tool to evaluate the effectiveness of reform processes in post-communist countries, but more studies are needed to identify factors that may determine results obtained by individual countries, as well as to eliminate the limitations of methodology we applied.

Keywords: health system outcomes, health reforms, health system assessment, health system evaluation

Procedia PDF Downloads 264

Authors: A. K. M. Zakir Hossain, Faruk-Ul Islam, Muhammad Alamgir Chowdhury, Kazi Morshed Alam, Md. Rashidul Islam, Muhammad Humayun Kabir, Noshin Ara Tunazzina, Taufiqur Rahman, Md. Ashik Mia, Ashaduzzaman Sagar

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The jute retting process is one of the key factors for the excellent jute fibre production as well as maintaining water quality. The traditional method of jute retting is time-consuming and hampers the fish cultivation by polluting the water body. Therefore, a low cost, time-saving, environment-friendly, and improved technique is essential for jute retting to overcome this problem. Thus the study was focused to compare the extent of water pollution and fibre quality of two retting systems, i.e., traditional retting practices over-improved retting method (macha retting) by assessing different physico-chemical and microbiological properties of water and fibre quality parameters. Water samples were collected from the top and bottom of the retting place at the early, mid, and final stages of retting from four districts of Bangladesh viz., Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, and Rangpur. Different physico-chemical parameters of water samples viz., pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), conductivity (CD), total dissolved solids (TDS), hardness, calcium, magnesium, carbonate, bicarbonate, chloride, phosphorus and sulphur content were measured. Irrespective of locations, the DO of the final stage retting water samples was very low as compared to the mid and early stage, and the DO of traditional jute retting method was significantly lower than the improved macha method. The pH of the water samples was slightly more acidic in the traditional retting method than that of the improved macha method. Other physico-chemical parameters of the water sample were found higher in the traditional method over-improved macha retting in all the stages of retting. Bacterial species were isolated from the collected water samples following the dilution plate technique. Microbiological results revealed that water samples of improved macha method contained more bacterial species that are supposed to involve in jute retting as compared to water samples of the traditional retting method. The bacterial species were then identified by the sequencing of 16SrDNA. Most of the bacterial species identified belong to the genera Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Pectobacterium, and Stenotrophomonas. In addition, the tensile strength of the jute fibre was tested, and the results revealed that the improved macha method showed higher mechanical strength than the traditional method in most of the locations. The overall results indicate that the water and fibre quality were found better in the improved macha retting method than the traditional method. Therefore, a time-saving and cost-friendly improved macha retting method can be widely adopted for the jute retting process to get the quality jute fiber and to keep the environment clean and safe.

Keywords: jute retting methods, physico-chemical parameters, retting microbes, tensile strength, water quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: M. Mashiur Rahman, Ulrik Birk Henriksen, Jesper Ahrenfeldt, Maria Puig Arnavat

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Using biomass gasification to make producer gas is one of the promising sustainable energy options available for small scale plant and rural applications for power and electricity. Tar content in producer gas is the main problem if it is used directly as a fuel. A low-tar biomass (LTB) gasifier of approximately 30 kW capacity has been developed to solve this. Moving bed gasifier with internal recirculation of pyrolysis gas has been the basic principle of the LTB gasifier. The gasifier focuses on the concept of mixing the pyrolysis gases with gasifying air and burning the mixture in separate combustion chamber. Five tests were carried out with the use of wood pellets and wood chips separately, with moisture content of 9-34%. The LTB gasifier offers excellent opportunities for handling extremely low-tar in the producer gas. The gasifiers producer gas had an extremely low tar content of 21.2 mg/Nm³ (avg.) and an average lower heating value (LHV) of 4.69 MJ/Nm³. Tar content found in different tests in the ranges of 10.6-29.8 mg/Nm³. This low tar content makes the producer gas suitable for direct use in internal combustion engine. Using mass and energy balances, the average gasifier capacity and cold gas efficiency (CGE) observed 23.1 kW and 82.7% for wood chips, and 33.1 kW and 60.5% for wood pellets, respectively. Average heat loss in term of higher heating value (HHV) observed 3.2% of thermal input for wood chips and 1% for wood pellets, where heat loss was found 1% of thermal input in term of enthalpy. Thus, the LTB gasifier performs better compared to typical gasifiers in term of heat loss. Equivalence ratio (ER) in the range of 0.29 to 0.41 gives better performance in terms of heating value and CGE. The specific gas production yields at the above ER range were in the range of 2.1-3.2 Nm³/kg. Heating value and CGE changes proportionally with the producer gas yield. The average gas compositions (H₂-19%, CO-19%, CO₂-10%, CH₄-0.7% and N₂-51%) obtained for wood chips are higher than the typical producer gas composition. Again, the temperature profile of the LTB gasifier observed relatively low temperature compared to typical moving bed gasifier. The average partial oxidation zone temperature of 970°C observed for wood chips. The use of separate combustor in the partial oxidation zone substantially lowers the bed temperature to 750°C. During the test, the engine was started and operated completely with the producer gas. The engine operated well on the produced gas, and no deposits were observed in the engine afterwards. Part of the producer gas flow was used for engine operation, and corresponding electrical power was found to be 1.5 kW continuously, and maximum power of 2.5 kW was also observed, while maximum generator capacity is 3 kW. A thermodynamic equilibrium model is good agreement with the experimental results and correctly predicts the equilibrium bed temperature, gas composition, LHV of the producer gas and ER with the experimental data, when the heat loss of 4% of the energy input is considered.

Keywords: biomass gasification, low-tar biomass gasifier, tar elimination, engine, deposits, condensate

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Authors: Nurkhairul Bariyah Baharun, Afzan Adam, Reena Rahayu Md Zin

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Tumor microenvironment (TME) in breast cancer is mainly composed of cancer cells, immune cells, and stromal cells. The interaction between cancer cells and their microenvironment plays an important role in tumor development, progression, and treatment response. The TME in breast cancer includes tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) that are implicated in killing tumor cells. TILs can be found in tumor stroma (sTILs) and within the tumor (iTILs). TILs in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) have been demonstrated to have prognostic and potentially predictive value. The international Immune-Oncology Biomarker Working Group (TIL-WG) had developed a guideline focus on the assessment of sTILs using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained slides. According to the guideline, the pathologists use “eye balling” method on the H&E stained- slide for sTILs assessment. This method has low precision, poor interobserver reproducibility, and is time-consuming for a comprehensive evaluation, besides only counted sTILs in their assessment. The TIL-WG has therefore recommended that any algorithm for computational assessment of TILs utilizing the guidelines provided to overcome the limitations of manual assessment, thus providing highly accurate and reliable TILs detection and classification for reproducible and quantitative measurement. This study is carried out to develop a TNBC digital whole slide image (WSI) dataset from H&E-stained slides and IHC (CD4+ and CD8+) stained slides. TNBC cases were retrieved from the database of the Department of Pathology, Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz (HCTM). TNBC cases diagnosed between the year 2010 and 2021 with no history of other cancer and available block tissue were included in the study (n=58). Tissue blocks were sectioned approximately 4 µm for H&E and IHC stain. The H&E staining was performed according to a well-established protocol. Indirect IHC stain was also performed on the tissue sections using protocol from Diagnostic BioSystems PolyVue™ Plus Kit, USA. The slides were stained with rabbit monoclonal, CD8 antibody (SP16) and Rabbit monoclonal, CD4 antibody (EP204). The selected and quality-checked slides were then scanned using a high-resolution whole slide scanner (Pannoramic DESK II DW- slide scanner) to digitalize the tissue image with a pixel resolution of 20x magnification. A manual TILs (sTILs and iTILs) assessment was then carried out by the appointed pathologist (2 pathologists) for manual TILs scoring from the digital WSIs following the guideline developed by TIL-WG 2014, and the result displayed as the percentage of sTILs and iTILs per mm² stromal and tumour area on the tissue. Following this, we aimed to develop an automated digital image scoring framework that incorporates key elements of manual guidelines (including both sTILs and iTILs) using manually annotated data for robust and objective quantification of TILs in TNBC. From the study, we have developed a digital dataset of TNBC H&E and IHC (CD4+ and CD8+) stained slides. We hope that an automated based scoring method can provide quantitative and interpretable TILs scoring, which correlates with the manual pathologist-derived sTILs and iTILs scoring and thus has potential prognostic implications.

Keywords: automated quantification, digital pathology, triple negative breast cancer, tumour infiltrating lymphocytes

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Authors: Sharmeen Rahman, Daniel Schmidt, Jane Hughes

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Paratya australiensis Kemp (Decapoda: Atyidae) is a widely distributed indigenous freshwater shrimp, highly abundant in eastern Australia. This species has been considered as a model stream organism to study genetics, dispersal, biology, behaviour and evolution in Atyids. Paratya has a filter feeding and scavenging habit which plays a significant role in the formation of lotic community structure. It has been shown to reduce periphyton and sediment from hard substrates of coastal streams and hence acts as a strongly-interacting ecosystem macroconsumer. Besides, Paratya is one of the major food sources for stream dwelling fishes. Paratya australiensis is a cryptic species complex consisting of 9 highly divergent mitochondrial DNA lineages. Among them, one lineage has been observed to favour upstream sites at higher altitudes, with cooler water temperatures. This study aims to identify local adaptation in upstream and downstream populations of this lineage in three streams in the Conondale Range, North-eastern Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Two populations (up and down stream) from each stream have been chosen to test for local adaptation, and a parallel pattern of adaptation is expected across all streams. Six populations each consisting of 24 individuals were sequenced using the Restriction Site Associated DNA-seq (RAD-seq) technique. Genetic markers (SNPs) were developed using double digest RAD sequencing (ddRAD-seq). These were used for de novo assembly of Paratya genome. De novo assembly was done using the STACKs program and produced 56, 344 loci for 47 individuals from one stream. Among these individuals, 39 individuals shared 5819 loci, and these markers are being used to test for local adaptation using Fst outlier tests (Arlequin) and Bayesian analysis (BayeScan) between up and downstream populations. Fst outlier test detected 27 loci likely to be under selection and the Bayesian analysis also detected 27 loci as under selection. Among these 27 loci, 3 loci showed evidence of selection at a significance level using BayeScan program. On the other hand, up and downstream populations are strongly diverged at neutral loci with a Fst =0.37. Similar analysis will be done with all six populations to determine if there is a parallel pattern of adaptation across all streams. Furthermore, multi-locus among population covariance analysis will be done to identify potential markers under selection as well as to compare single locus versus multi-locus approaches for detecting local adaptation. Adaptive genes identified in this study can be used for future studies to design primers and test for adaptation in related crustacean species.

Keywords: Paratya australiensis, rainforest streams, selection, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs)

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Authors: Melanie Grier, Adam Murry

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Objective: Worldwide, Indigenous Peoples experience underemployment and poverty at disproportionately higher rates than non-Indigenous people, despite similar rates of employment seeking. Euro-colonial conquest and genocidal assimilation policies are implicated as perpetuating poverty, which research consistently links to health and wellbeing disparities. Many of the contributors to poverty, such as inadequate income and lack of access to medical care, can be directly or indirectly linked to underemployment. Calls have been made to prioritize Indigenous perspectives in Industrial-Organizational (I/O) psychology research, yet the literature on Indigenous employment remains scarce. What does exist is disciplinarily diverse, topically scattered, and lacking evidence of community-based participatory research (CBPR) practices, a research project approach which prioritizes community leadership, partnership, and betterment and reduces the potential for harm. Due to the harmful colonial legacy of extractive scientific inquiry "on" rather than "with" Indigenous groups, Indigenous leaders and research funding agencies advocate for academic researchers to adopt reparative research methodologies such as CBPR to be used when studying issues pertaining to Indigenous Peoples or individuals. However, the frequency and consistency of CBPR implementation within scholarly discourse are unknown. Therefore, this project’s goal is two-fold: (1) to understand what comprises CBPR in Indigenous research and (2) to determine if CBPR has been historically used in Indigenous employment research. Method: Using a systematic literature review process, sixteen articles about CBPR use with Indigenous groups were selected, and content was analyzed to identify key components comprising CBPR usage. An Indigenous CBPR components framework was constructed and subsequently utilized to analyze the Indigenous employment empirical literature. A similar systematic literature review process was followed to search for relevant empirical articles on Indigenous employment. A total of 120 articles were identified in six global regions: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, America, the Pacific Islands, and Greenland/Norway. Each empirical study was procedurally examined and coded for criteria inclusion using content analysis directives. Results: Analysis revealed that, in total, CBPR elements were used 14% of the time in Indigenous employment research. Most studies (n=69; 58%) neglected to mention using any CBPR components, while just two studies discussed implementing all sixteen (2%). The most significant determinant of overall CBPR use was community member partnership (CP) in the research process. Studies from New Zealand were most likely to use CBPR components, followed by Canada, Australia, and America. While CBPR use did increase slowly over time, meaningful temporal trends were not found. Further, CBPR use did not directly correspond with the total number of topical articles published that year. Conclusions: Community-initiated and engaged research approaches must be better utilized in employment studies involving Indigenous Peoples. Future research efforts must be particularly attentive to community-driven objectives and research protocols, emphasizing specific areas of concern relevant to the field of I/O psychology, such as organizational support, recruitment, and selection.

Keywords: community-based participatory research, content analysis, employment, indigenous research, international, reconciliation, recruitment, reparative research, selection, systematic literature review

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Authors: Adam J. Bowen

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Abstract— Should robots have rights or legal protections. Often debates concerning whether robots and AI should be afforded rights focus on conditions of personhood and the possibility of future advanced forms of AI satisfying particular intrinsic cognitive and moral attributes of rights-holding persons. Such discussions raise compelling questions about machine consciousness, autonomy, and value alignment with human interests. Although these are important theoretical concerns, especially from a future design perspective, they provide limited guidance for addressing the moral and legal standing of current and near-term AI that operate well below the cognitive and moral agency of human persons. Robots and AI are already being pressed into service in a wide range of roles, especially in healthcare and biomedical contexts. The design and large-scale implementation of robots in the context of core societal institutions like healthcare systems continues to rapidly develop. For example, we bring them into our homes, hospitals, and other care facilities to assist in care for the sick, disabled, elderly, children, or otherwise vulnerable persons. We enlist surgical robotic systems in precision tasks, albeit still human-in-the-loop technology controlled by surgeons. We also entrust them with social roles involving companionship and even assisting in intimate caregiving tasks (e.g., bathing, feeding, turning, medicine administration, monitoring, transporting). There have been advances to enable severely disabled persons to use robots to feed themselves or pilot robot avatars to work in service industries. As the applications for near-term AI increase and the roles of robots in restructuring our biomedical practices expand, we face pressing questions about the normative implications of human-robot interactions and collaborations in our collective worldmaking, as well as the moral and legal status of robots. This paper argues that robots operating in public and private spaces be afforded some protections as either moral patients or legal agents to establish prohibitions on robot abuse, misuse, and mistreatment. We already implement robots and embed them in our practices and institutions, which generates a host of human-to-machine and machine-to-machine relationships. As we interact with machines, whether in service contexts, medical assistance, or home health companions, these robots are first encountered in relationship to us and our respective roles in the encounter (e.g., surgeon, physical or occupational therapist, recipient of care, patient’s family, healthcare professional, stakeholder). This proposal aims to outline a framework for establishing limiting factors and determining the extent of moral or legal protections for robots. In doing so, it advocates for a relational approach that emphasizes the priority of mapping the complex contextually sensitive roles played and the relations in which humans and robots stand to guide policy determinations by relevant institutions and authorities. The relational approach must also be technically informed by the intended uses of the biomedical technologies in question, Design History Files, extensive risk assessments and hazard analyses, as well as use case social impact assessments.

Keywords: biomedical robots, robot ethics, robot laws, human-robot interaction

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Authors: Lizinis Cassendra Frederick Dony, Jirom Jeremy Frederick Dony, Andrew Nicholas, Dewi Binti Tajuddin

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Starting and surviving a business is influenced by various entrepreneurship socio-economics activities. The study revealed that some of the entrepreneurs are not registered under SME but running own business as an intermediary with the private organization entrusted as “Self-Employed.” SME is known as “Small Medium Enterprise” contributes growth in Malaysia. Therefore, the entrepreneurialism business interest and entrepreneurial intention enhancing new spurring production, expanding employment opportunities, increasing productivity, promoting exports, stimulating innovation and providing new avenue in the business market place. This study has identified the unique contribution to the full understanding of complex mechanisms through entrepreneurship obstacles and education impacts on happiness and well-being to society. Moreover, “Ethnic” term has defined as a curious meaning refers to a classification of a large group of people customs implies to ancestral, racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic and cultural origins. It is a social phenomenon.1 According to Sabah data population is amounting to 2,389,494 showed the predominant ethnic group being the Kadazan Dusun (18.4%) followed by Bajau (17.3%) and Malays (15.3%). For the year 2010, data statistic immigrants population report showed the amount to 239,765 people which cover 4% of the Sabahan’s population.2 Sabah has numerous group of talented entrepreneurs. The business environment among the minority ethnics are influenced with the business sentiment competition. The literature on ethnic entrepreneurship recognizes two main type entrepreneurships: the middleman and enclave entrepreneurs. According to Adam Smith,3 there are evidently some principles disposition to admire and maintain the distinction business rank status and cause most universal business sentiments. Due to credit barriers competition, the minority ethnics are losing the business market and since 2014, many illegal immigrants have been found to be using permits of the locals to operate businesses in Malaysia.4 The development of small business entrepreneurship among the minority ethnics in Sabah evidenced based variety of complex perception and differences concepts. The studies also confirmed the effects of heterogeneity on group decision and thinking caused partly by excessive pre-occupation with maintaining cohesiveness and the presence of cultural diversity in groups should reduce its probability.5 The researchers proposed that there are seven success determinants particularly to determine the involvement of minority ethnics comparing to the involvement of the immigrants in Sabah. Although, (SMEs) have always been considered the backbone of the economy development, the minority ethnics are often categorized it as the “second-choice.’ The study showed that illegal immigrants entrepreneur imposed a burden on Sabahan social programs as well as the prison, court and health care systems. The tension between the need for cheap labor and the impulse to protect Malaysian in Sabah workers, entrepreneurs and taxpayers, among the subjects discussed in this study. This is clearly can be advantages and disadvantages to the Sabah economic development.

Keywords: entrepreneurial firms, self-employed, immigrants, minority ethnic, economic impacts

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