Understanding the differential impact of vegetation measures on the association between vegetation and mental health disorders

Background: Considerable debate exists as to whether vegetation can help achieve better mental health outcomes. Although few studies have attempted to evaluate the health effects of vegetation, a spatial study, which has analyzed the effect of different vegetation measures on the detection of a significant association between vegetation and mental health disorders, is still missing. Furthermore, based on the available literature, there is an absence of studies that have analyzed the age and sex-specific effects of surrounding vegetation on mental health disorders, while adjusting for the overdispersion, spatial autocorrelation and unmeasured covariates in the models. Objective: The objective of this study is to understand the differential impact of vegetation measures on the association between vegetation and various types of mental health disorders. In doing so, the study also attempted to understand whether there are any age and sex-specific effects of vegetation on mental health disorder cases. Methods: Remote sensing and machine learning techniques were employed to generate three vegetation indices and one area-based vegetation measure from the Landsat-8 satellite images. The satellite-based indices comprised of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and the soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI). The area-based vegetation measure was developed from a Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) model using the Random Forest ensemble classifier. The conventionally used vegetation data was extracted from the Toronto Open Data portal and compared with the variables created from the satellite images. The dataset comprising psychotic, non-psychotic, substance use and family, social and occupational-related disorder cases were retrieved from the Ontario Community Health Profiles Partnership database. The dataset also contained the combined mental health disorder cases, which is a total of the four types of mental health disorders. The association between vegetation and psychotic and non-psychotic disorders were analyzed using the Poisson lognormal models under a Bayesian framework. Based on the results from the Bayesian models, a single vegetation measure was selected and the association of the vegetation with the combined mental health disorders for males and females in the age groups, 0-19, 20-44, 45-64 and 65+ were analyzed using Bayesian spatial modeling. Results: Results suggested substantial effects of the type of vegetation measure used to analyze the association between vegetation and mental health disorder cases. Only the vegetation indices, which could capture both the areal extent and health of the vegetation cover, could detect a significant association with the mental health disorder cases. Specifically, EVI and SAVI, which were constructed after adjusting for different urban and environmental disturbances, were able to detect significant and negative associations with the psychotic and non-psychotic disorder cases. Furthermore, the findings of this study suggested significant age and sex-specific effects of vegetation on the prevalence of mental health disorders in Toronto. The combined mental health disorder cases for males from the age group 0-19 years and for both males and females from the age group 20-44 years were found to be negatively associated with the vegetation cover. For older adults in the age-groups 45-64 and 65+, only the socioeconomic covariates were found to be significantly associated with the combined mental health disorder cases. For each of the Bayesian models analyzed in this study, a substantial influence of the spatially structured and unmeasured covariates was detected. Conclusions: Epidemiological studies must consider both the quantity and quality of people’s exposure to surrounding vegetation cover. Vegetation measures that capture both the areal extent and the health of the surrounding vegetation can help detect the actual relationship between vegetation and the mental health conditions of the people in an area. The study setting (urban, peri-urban and rural) can have a notable influence on the detection of different types of vegetation cover and should always be addressed while selecting a vegetation measure for epidemiological studies. As significant and negative associations between vegetation and mental health disorder cases were found for young males and females, policymakers should consider incorporating more greenspaces and vegetation-covered areas in urban areas, to reduce the future burden of mental health disorders in Canada. The findings of this study can provide critical guidelines to public health researches aiming to understand the exposure of the population to surrounding greenness. The relative risk maps can help devise targeted intervention strategies to reduce mental health burdens in the Toronto area

MEDICAL TEXTILES: SIGNIFICANCE AND FUTURE PROSPECT IN BANGLADESH

Now-a-days textiles are used in different sectors and various purposesbeyond imagination. Medical sector is one of them. An important andemerging part of the textile industry is medical, hygiene and health sector.The development is taking place due to the simultaneous expansion andimprovement of technology in both textile as well as medical sector. Thenumber of applications is huge and diverse, ranging from a single threadsuture to the complex composite structures for bone replacement and fromthe simple cleaning wipe to advanced barrier fabrics used in OperationTheater. The main object of this work is to study the types of medical textilesused in the medical sector, information on imported items and scope ofmanufacturing these items in Bangladesh. For this work we have visitedDhaka Medical College, Sir Salimullah Medical College, Uttara AdhunikMedical College and Hospital, BMA Bhaban Surgical Market. We havegathered very useful and vast knowledge about the term "Medical Textiles",as per our work and capability

Hydrogen-rich syngas fermentation for bioethanol production using Sacharomyces cerevisiea

Bioethanol is an eco-friendly biofuel due to its merit that makes it a top-tier fuel. The present study emphasized on bioethanol production from hydrogen-rich syngas through fermentation using Sacharomyces cerevisiea. Syngas fermentation was performed in a tar free fermenter using a syngas mixture of 13.05% H2, 22.92% CO, 7.9% CO2, and 1.13% CH4, by volume. In the fermentation process, effects of various parameters including syngas impurity, temperature, pH, colony forming unit, total organic carbon and syngas composition were investigated. The yield of bioethanol was identified by Gas chromatography-Mass spectrometry analysis and further, it was confirmed by Nuclear magnetic resonance (1H) analysis. From GC-MS results, it is revealed that the concentration of bioethanol using Saccharomyces cerevisiae was 30.56 mmol from 1 L of syngas. Thus, hydrogen-rich syngas is suited for bioethanol production through syngas fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This research may contribute to affordable and environment-friendly bioethanol-based energy to decrease the dependency on fossil fuels. © 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LL

Role of the Masjid in disaster management: preliminary investigation of evidences from Asia

The Masjid (Mosque in English) has historically played a vital role in the spiritual, moral and social upliftment of the Muslim community. Nevertheless, the role of the masjid has remained largely undocumented, and unrecognised in the development and disaster studies. Although the role of the masjid in disaster situations in many Muslim countries is evident, very little study has been undertaken to document its role as a development agent. Hence, investigating the potential of the masjid in disaster situation is an effort to describe and explore the functions and roles of a mosque in responding to a disaster. It has been remarked that the masjid has the potential to play a role in disaster management in early warning systems, as an information centre, an evacuation site and even with contingency planning. The role of the masjid during emergency response has received appreciation from the victims and the community. However, the potential has not yet been fully explored. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to explore and document the role the masjid has played in disaster management in various Asian countries and based on it develop a model of the potential role, the mosque can play in building the community resilience for disaster management in the Muslim countries

Role of the masjid in disaster management: Preliminary investigation of evidences from Asia

The Masjid (Mosque in English) has historically played a vital role in the spiritual, moral and social upliftment of the Muslim community. Nevertheless, the role of the masjid has remained largely undocumented, and unrecognised in the development and disaster studies. Although the role of the masjid in disaster situations in many Muslim countries is evident, very little study has been undertaken to document its role as a development agent. Hence, investigating the potential of the masjid in disaster situation is an effort to describe and explore the functions and roles of a mosque in responding to a disaster. It has been remarked that the masjid has the potential to play a role in disaster management in early warning systems, as an information centre, an evacuation site and even with contingency planning. The role of the masjid during emergency response has received appreciation from the victims and the community. However, the potential has not yet been fully explored. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to explore and document the role the masjid has played in disaster management in various Asian countries and based on it develop a model of the potential role, the mosque can play in building the community resilience for disaster management in the Muslim countries

Compared the effect of indirect ELISA and serum plate agglutination (SPA) test for the detection of Mycoplasma gallisepticum in chicken

Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) is a highly economical and persistent threat of poultry industry in Bangladesh. Indirect ELISA (iELISA) and Serum plate agglutination test (SPA) is available serological test for diagnosis of MG antibodies. The aim of this research was conducted on the basis of comparison on diagnosis results between iELISA and SPA test for MG antibody in same sample in layer chicken. Total 563 serum samples were collected and tested for MG antibody by both iELISA and SPA test. Out of 563 samples 363 (64.48%) samples were positive by iELISA and 316 (56.13%) samples were positive in SPA test. The higher incidence of MG antibody was found in chicken at 50-56 weeks and flock size was 3000-4200 as 69.63% by iELISA and 61.21% by SPA and in Sonali breeds 69.08% by iELISA and 60.64% by SPA. The results showed the comparatively higher number of positive results in iELISA test than SPA test. So the findings of the study demonstrated that a significant (p<0.05) difference between iELISA and SPA test present. The study may helpful for screening the flock for MG and small-holding farmers may use SPA test rather than iELISA test due to rapid, easy and cost effective

EFFECT OF FABRIC STRUCTURE ON RIB FABRIC PROPERTIES

In this work,1×1Rib,1×1Skeleton rib, 2×2English rib, 2×2Swiss rib, 6×3Derby rib were produced with 20/2 Ne and 32/2 Ne combed ring yarn and V-bed knitting machine of 14 Gauge. In addition, Wales per 3cm, Course per 3cm, Stitch density, Stitch length, Tightness factor, GSM, Dimensional Stability of fabric were tested. According to test result, Wales per 3cm, Stitch density, Cover factor, GSM of 1×1Rib were higher than the 1×1Skeleton rib;Wales per 3cm, Course per 3cm, Stitch density, Stitch length, Cover factor, Shrinkage%, extension% of 2×2English rib were higher than the 1×1Rib; Wales per 3cm, Stitch density, GSM, Shrinkage%, extension% of 2×2Swiss rib were higher than the 1×1Rib; in 6×3Derby Rib values of the properties were higher than other structure; shrinkage and extension percentage increase with the increase of needle drop in knitting

A Dependable Hybrid Machine Learning Model for Network Intrusion Detection

Network intrusion detection systems (NIDSs) play an important role in computer network security. There are several detection mechanisms where anomaly-based automated detection outperforms others significantly. Amid the sophistication and growing number of attacks, dealing with large amounts of data is a recognized issue in the development of anomaly-based NIDS. However, do current models meet the needs of today's networks in terms of required accuracy and dependability? In this research, we propose a new hybrid model that combines machine learning and deep learning to increase detection rates while securing dependability. Our proposed method ensures efficient pre-processing by combining SMOTE for data balancing and XGBoost for feature selection. We compared our developed method to various machine learning and deep learning algorithms to find a more efficient algorithm to implement in the pipeline. Furthermore, we chose the most effective model for network intrusion based on a set of benchmarked performance analysis criteria. Our method produces excellent results when tested on two datasets, KDDCUP'99 and CIC-MalMem-2022, with an accuracy of 99.99% and 100% for KDDCUP'99 and CIC-MalMem-2022, respectively, and no overfitting or Type-1 and Type-2 issues.Comment: Accepted in the Journal of Information Security and Applications (Scopus, Web of Science (SCIE) Journal, Quartile: Q1, Site Score: 7.6, Impact Factor: 4.96) on 7 December 202

Application of Electroporation Technique in Biofuel Processing

Biofuels production is mostly oriented with fermentation process, which requires fermentable sugar as nutrient for microbial growth. Lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) represents the most attractive, low-cost feedstock for biofuel production, it is now arousing great interest. The cellulose that is embedded in the lignin matrix has an insoluble, highly-crystalline structure, so it is difficult to hydrolyze into fermentable sugar or cell protein. On the other hand, microbial lipid has been studying as substitute of plant oils or animal fat to produce biodiesel. It is still a great challenge to extract maximum lipid from microbial cells (yeast, fungi, algae) investing minimum energy. Electroporation (EP) of LCB results a significant increase in cell conductivity and permeability caused due to the application of an external electric field. EP is required to alter the size and structure of the biomass, to reduce the cellulose crystallinity, and increase their porosity as well as chemical composition, so that the hydrolysis of the carbohydrate fraction to monomeric sugars can be achieved rapidly and with greater yields. Furthermore, EP has a great potential to disrupt the microbial cell walls within few seconds to bring out the intracellular materials (lipid) to the solution. Therefore, this study aims to describe the challenges and prospect of application of EP technique in biofuels processing

Electrochemical Study of Copper Ferrite as a Catalyst for CO2 Photoelectrochemical Reduction

In this work, p-type CuFe2O4 was synthesized by sol gel method. The prepared CuFe2O4 was used as photocathode catalyst for photoelectrochemical (PEC) CO2 reduction. The XRD, UV-Visible Spectroscopy (UV-Vis), and Mott-Schottky (MS) experiments were done to characterize the catalyst. Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) was employed to evaluate the visible light (λ>400 nm) effect of this catalyst for CO2 reduction.  The band gap energy of the catalyst was calculated from the UV-Vis and was found 1.30 eV. Flat band potential of the prepared CuFe2O4 was also calculated and found 0.27 V versus Ag/AgCl. Under light irradiation in the CO2-saturated NaHCO3 solution, a remarkable current development associated with CO2 reduction was found during LSV for the prepared electrode from onset potential -0.89 V with a peak current emerged at -1.01 V (vs Ag/AgCl) representing the occurrence of CO2 reduction reaction. In addition, the mechanism of PEC was proposed for the photocathode where the necessity of a bias potential in the range of 0.27 to ~ -1.0 V vs Ag/AgCl was identified which could effectively inhibit the electron-hole (e-/h+) recombination process leading to an enhancement of CO2 reduction reactions.