Safe Area for Residential Population to Reside Near Limestone Mining: a Risk Management Approach

Di Sukabumi, batu kapur ditambang oleh penduduk setempat tanpa pengendalian bahaya yang memadai. Untuk mengestimasi risiko kesehatan akibat pajanan penambangan kapur dan menentukan lokasi aman untuk penduduk di sekitarnya, telah dilakukan analisis risiko kesehatan lingkungan untuk partikulat tersuspensi total (TSP) dan PM10 di Desa Padabeunghar, Kecamatan Jampang Tengah, Kabupaten Sukabumi. TSP dan PM10 diukur di lokasi penambangan dan di 10 tempat pemukiman dengan interval koaksial sekitar 500 m. Berat badan dan waktu kontak pemajanan diukur dari 110 orang penduduk lelaki dan perempuan dewasa yang dipilih secara acak dari 6.523 rumah tangga di sekitar lokasi penambangan. Estimasi risiko kesehatan, yang dinyatakan sebagai risk quotient (RQ), dihitung dari rata-rata asupan harian TSP dan PM10 dan dosis referensinya (RfC). Risiko kesehatan dianggap ada dan perlu dikendalikan jika RQ>1. Hasil estimasi menunjukkan bahwa hanya sekitar 9% penduduk Desa Padabeunghar yang aman dari risiko kesehatan oleh pajanan debu partikulat sepanjang hidup mereka. Dengan RQ gabungan yang berkisar 0,67 sampai 13, lokasi yang aman untuk dihuni berada mulai dari 4 km dari pusat pertambangan ke luar, sedangkan menurut baku mutu lingkungan udara ambien (PP 41/1999) lokasi aman mulai dari 3 km. Konsentrasi TSP dan PM10 yang terukur masing-masing 23-1.606 dan 10-175 μg/M3, sedangkan menurut rumusan manajemen risiko masing-masing 81 μg/M3 dan 57 μg/M3. Angka tingkat aman ini, yang lebih rendah dari ketentuan PP 41/1999 sebesar 90 μg/M3 untuk TSP, dapat dicapai dengan menurunkan laju penambangan dari 25 ton/hari menjadi 6,3 ton/hari, atau dengan memindahkan tungku pembakaran kapur ke lokasi yang lebih jauh dari pemukima

Surface water quality and risk assessment in the vicinity of Sylhet City

This paper is aimed to determine the surface water quality in an around Sylhet City. We used surface water for our keen purpose. Surface water as well as ground water has been contaminated by humans. Nowadays, water pollution is a major global problem which requires ongoing evaluation and revision of water resource policy at all levels. In addition to the acute problems of water pollution in developing countries, developed countries continue to struggle with pollution problems as well. Discharges from various contaminated sources are a very common thing in city life which deteriorates the water quality of any main water source and necessary treatment is required to make water potable. Sylhet, one of the six divisional cities of Bangladesh is suffering from shortage of domestic water supply and adequate sewerage lines, drainage and solid waste disposal problems. This paper will focus on evaluation of the existing condition of surface water in Sylhet City and investigating some physical and chemical quality of water throughout the year 2008 to 2009. The selected parameters for assessing the water quality are pH, total dissolved solid (TDS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), dissolved oxygen (DO), ammonia nitrogen, nitrate and turbidity in the vicinity of Sylhet City

Fractal-like kinetics for adsorption of Pb (II) on graphene oxide/hydrous zirconium oxide/crosslinked starch bio-composite: Application of Taguchi approach for optimization

This study deals with the decontamination of Pb (II) from aqueous environment using graphene oxide/hydrous zirconium oxide/crosslinked starch bio-composite (GZS-BC). Various instrumental techniques were used to characterize the GZS-BC. The main factors of Pb (II) sorption were optimized by Taguchi method. Under optimum conditions, (adsorbent dose: 40 mg, contact time: 180 min and initial Pb (II) concentration: 50 mg/L) maximum removal efficiency (98.50%) was achieved at pH 6. Various isotherm models were tested to fit the adsorption data and Freundlich isotherm model was the best fit model with high R2 values (0.9977–0.9983) and low values of χ2 (0.01–0.02) and APE (0.90–1.14). The kinetic data were investigated using classical and fractal-like kinetic equations. The fractal-like mixed 1,2-order kinetic model was the best fit model which pointed towards heterogeneous surface of GZS-BC with more than one type of sorption sites. Thermodynamic study shows that Pb (II) sorption onto GZS-BC was spontaneous and endothermic in nature. The values of ΔG° indicated that physisorption together with chemisorption was responsible for uptake of Pb (II).The authors are highly thankful to Department of Chemistry, AMU assisted through UGC DRS-SAP, DST-PURSE and DST-FIST programs for providing necessary facilities. The authors extend their sincere appreciation to the Researchers Supporting Project Number (RSP2023R266) King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for the support.Publicad

Electronic transaction of internet banking and its perception of Malaysian online customers

The purpose of this research is to find out significant factors of consumers’ perception on e-banking transaction by Malaysian bank consumers. The study utilizes a combination of theoretical frameworks and quantitative techniques o testify the statistical relationships between consumer perceptions on e-banking transaction. Meanwhile factor analysis was performed to extraction and make initial decision on the number of factors underlying asset of measured variables of interest. Thereafter structural equation mode (SEM) was estimated to anticipate the effects of the explanatory variables. This study shows that only protected transaction, have significant impact on consumers’ perception about e-banking security, followed by service quality and regulatory frame work issues. This study is the first that seeks to ascertain the insight into e-banking in Malaysia, which has not been previously been investigated and much statistical significance makes this study a potential cornerstone for future research. Therefore, this study thus sets an important benchmark for further research in the area

Analyzing topics and authors in chat logs for crime investigation

Cybercriminals have been using the Internet to accomplish illegitimate activities and to execute catastrophic attacks. Computer-Mediated Communication such as online chat provides an anonymous channel for predators to exploit victims. In order to prosecute criminals in a court of law, an investigator often needs to extract evidence from a large volume of chat messages. Most of the existing search tools are keyword-based, and the search terms are provided by an investigator. The quality of the retrieved results depends on the search terms provided. Due to the large volume of chat messages and the large number of participants in public chat rooms, the process is often time-consuming and error-prone. This paper presents a topic search model to analyze archives of chat logs for segregating crime-relevant logs from others. Specifically, we propose an extension of the Latent Dirichlet Allocation-based model to extract topics, compute the contribution of authors in these topics, and study the transitions of these topics over time. In addition, we present a special model for characterizing authors-topics over time. This is crucial for investigation because it provides a view of the activity in which authors are involved in certain topics. Experiments on two real-life datasets suggest that the proposed approach can discover hidden criminal topics and the distribution of authors to these topics

Benefit incidence analysis of healthcare in Bangladesh – equity matters for universal health coverage

Background: Equity in access to and utilization of healthcare is an important goal for any health system and an essential prerequisite for achieving Universal Health Coverage for any country. Objectives: This study investigated the extent to which health benefits are distributed across socioeconomic groups; and how different types of providers contribute to inequity in health benefits of Bangladesh. Methodology: The distribution of health benefits across socioeconomic groups was estimated using concentration indices. Health benefits from three types of formal providers were analysed (public, private and NGO providers), separated into rural and urban populations. Decomposition of concentration indices into types of providers quantified the relative contribution of providers to the overall distribution of benefits across socioeconomic groups. Eventually, the distribution of benefits was compared to the distribution of healthcare need (proxied by ‘self-reported illness and symptoms’) across socioeconomic groups. Data from the latest Household Income and Expenditure Survey, 2010 and WHO-CHOICE were used. Results: An overall pro-rich distribution of healthcare benefits was observed (CI = 0.229, t-value = 9.50). Healthcare benefits from private providers (CI = 0.237, t-value = 9.44) largely favoured the richer socioeconomic groups. Little evidence of inequity in benefits was found in public (CI = 0.044, t-value = 2.98) and NGO (CI = 0.095, t-value = 0.54) providers. Private providers contributed by 95.9% to overall inequity. The poorest socioeconomic group with 21.8% of the need for healthcare received only 12.7% of the benefits, while the richest group with 18.0% of the need accounted for 32.8% of the health benefits. Conclusion: Overall healthcare benefits in Bangladesh were pro-rich, particularly because of health benefits from private providers. Public providers were observed to contribute relatively slightly to inequity. The poorest (richest) people with largest (least) need for healthcare actually received lower (higher) benefits. When working to achieve Universal Health Coverage in Bangladesh, particular consideration should be given to ensuring that private sector care is more equitable