The Development of Moisture Sensitivity Test for Compacted Asphalt

Moisture damage is one of the major issues in asphalt distress. It is due to the adhesive andcohesive failure of asphalt mixture and it will shorten pavement life. Moisture-sensitivemixtures need to be identified during the course of the mixture design process which fulfillsthe specified minimum standard. The laboratory testing procedures currently available forcompacted Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) to test the moisture sensitivity were primarily developedto determine the degree of resistance to moisture damage by a particular combination ofasphalt and aggregate. These moisture sensitivity tests evaluate the effect of moisture damagein laboratory by measuring the relative change of a single parameter before and afterconditioning (i.e., Tensile Strength Ratio, Resilient Modulus Ratio). The tests were simple toconduct and widely accepted by various state and federal agencies, but their drawback includethe empirical nature of the procedures, the dependence of the results on the moistureconditioning methodology and in several cases, the poor correlation with field performance.Many new approaches were conducted to overcome the weaknesses of the existing method.These new approaches mostly designed to conduct the test as close as the field condition andconsider the material properties of asphalt to give the useful result for the asphaltperformance. For better asphalt mixture design, it needs to have the test procedure whichconsidered the effect of traffic loading. The moisture conditioning methodology should avoidusing the vacuum saturation method since this method contributes to the asphalt mixturestrength. The scale of performance measurement can be conducted either microscale ormacroscle. Besides that the test also must be repeatable, reproducible, feasible, practical, andeconomical enough that it can be included in routine asphalt mixture design practice

XRD, AFM and UV-Vis optical studies of PbSe thin films produced by chemical bath deposition method.

PbSe thin �films have been deposited on microscope glass substrates by chemical bath deposition technique. The chemical bath consisted of lead nitrate, sodium selenate and triethanolamine solutions. The influence of bath temperature on the properties of PbSe �lms was investigated. The X-ray diff�raction, atomic force microscope and UV/Vis Spectrophotometer were used to obtain the structural characterization, surface morphological and absorbance data, respectively. Based on the X-ray diff�raction results, the thin �films obtained were found to be polycrystalline in nature with cubic structure. The intensity of the (111) peak showed a signifi�cant increased as the bath temperature was increased from 40 to 80C. The �films deposited at 80C indicated that the crystallinity was improved and more PbSe peaks were observed. On the other hand, the grain size, fi�lm thickness and surface roughness were increased while band gap energy decreased as could be observed in atomic force microscope and UV-Vis optical studies, respectively

Performance Comparison of EMG Signal Analysis for Manual Lifting using Spectrogram

Electromyography (EMG) signal is non-stationary signal and highly complex time and frequency characteristics. Fast-Fourier transform common technique in signal processing involving EMG signal. However, this technique has a limitation to provide the time-frequency information for EMG signals. This paper presents the analysis of EMG signal of the variable lifting height and mass of load between the four subjects selected in manual lifting by using spectrogram. Spectrogram is one of the time-frequency representation (TFR) that represents the threedimensional of the signal with respect to time and frequency in magnitude presentations. The manual lifting tasks is based on manual lifting of 5 kg and 10 kg load that performed by the right biceps brachii at lifting height of 75 cm and 140 cm. Four from ten healthy volunteers in fresh condition is selected into this comparison of subject performance tasks with their raw data collections. The raw data of EMG signals were then analyzed using MATLAB 2011 to obtain the voltage in time and frequency information. This study obtained the mean instantaneous RMS Voltage (Vrms(t)) to visualize the strength of the subjects produced during the manual lifting tasks. Results of this study evince the physical details of the subjects would able to effect the performance of the lifting. Higher lifting height and the number of contraction, the better performance of the subjects. It concluded that the application of spectrogram is able to providing the performance of the subjects by time-frequency information for EMG signals

In vitro propagation of two strawberry (Fragaria ananassa Duch.) cultivars of Bangladesh

An experiment on in vitro propagation of strawberry was carried out at Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Laboratory of Agrotechnology Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh during the period of February to November, 2015. In the experiment, runners of two strawberry cultivars viz. BARI Strawberry-1 and Modern Strawberry-5 (Festival) were cultured on MS  media supplemented with different concentrations of BAP (1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mgL-1) and Kin (0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 mgL-1) for multiple shoot regeneration. The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications. The highest number of shoots (10.41) was obtained from Modern Strawberry-5 and maximum shoot length (13.62 mm) obtained from BARI Strawberry-1. Maximum number of shoots (13.33) and shoot length (24.29 mm) were recorded from MS media containing 1.0 mgL-1 BAP and 1.0 mgL-1 Kin. Then all the regenerated plantlets were cultured on MS media containing 2.0 mgL-1 IAA for root initiation. Greater reduction in vigor was observed in Modern Strawberry-5 (Festival) when they were transferred to root induction media. Ex vitro survivability of the complete plantlets varied from 36.67 to 6.67%. Maximum survivability of both varieties 36.67% (BARI Strawberry-1) and 26.67% (Festival) were recorded from MS media supplemented with 1.0 mgL-1 BAP and 1.0 mgL-1 Kin. For in vitro micropropagation, BARI Strawberry-1 may be better and MS media supplemented with 1.0 mgL-1 BAP and 1.0 mgL-1 Kin may be better

Health Problems and Health Care Seeking Behaviour of Rohingya Refugees

Background: Rohingya refugees are one of the most vulnerable group due to lack of health care system, personal hygiene, shelter, sanitation and violence. Aim: The present study aims to find out the health problems and health care seeking behavior of rohingya refugees, to identify the socio-demographic information for such exposure group in relation to age, sex, occupation, living areas, to explore the patient’s physical, emotional, perceptions, attitudes and environmental health problems and to bring out health care seeking behavior of refugees. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted. A total of 149 samples were selected conveniently for this study from the refugee camps. Data was collected by using mixed type of questionnaire. Descriptive statistic was used for data analysis which has depicted through tables, pie chart and bar chart. Results: The finding of the study showed that 45.6% participants had multiple problems, followed by 16.8% participants who had other specific problems like musculoskeletal pain, visual problems and peptic ulcer. Urinary tract infection was the leading individual health problem with 11.4% of the sample group having it. 10.7% participants had hypertension, 6% had respiratory tract infection, 3.4% had nutrition deficiency, 4.75% had diabetes mellitus and 1.3% had sanitation & hygiene problems. Among the participants, 68.4% age ranged between 15-59 years. The study showed that, only 16.1% participants were satisfied with the quality of service they received while 37.6% participants said that they needed better services such as more laboratory test, radiological imaging, more medicine and more doctors. Conclusion: It is clear that refugees suffered from a variety of health problems, because their living condition and environmental situation were not similar like an independent nation. Further, basic amenities like medicines and other services were not available

Awareness of sleep hygiene in medical students of Kara-chi: A cross sectional study.

Introduction: Sleep, a neurobiological phenomenon, is very essential component for the behaviours of human beings. Sleep Hygiene is essentially a term which is used to understand lifestyle and environmental factors that influence sleep. A stu-dent when get admission in a university, it’s a turning point in his/her life as previ-ous routine is dramatically altered. This is more so if a student enters a medical college or university. While studying medicine the syllabus, timetables, duties, shifts are all manifold and hence it changes the complete environment and lifestyle of nearly all students. This in turn leads to drastic change in the pattern of sleep hygiene.Objective: This study was conducted to assess the awareness of sleep hygiene among medical students.Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted from March –August 2019. The approval of study sought from Ethical Review committee of Isra University. A self- administered questionnaire used to collect data after student’s verbal consent and ensuring their anonymity. Using convenient sampling technique 467 medical students were studied including those from 1st year to 5th year students. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 21.0.Results: Showed that 59.5% of the students have not heard about sleep hygiene, 31.5% have heard it and 9% of them were not sure about it.77% of participants use social media, 72% takes shower and 63% of the students wash their face before going to the bed.Conclusion: We concluded that majority of the medical students are unaware of Sleep Hygiene and a large portion of them uses social media before going to bed.Key Words: Sleep Hygiene, medical students, awareness

Notational analysis on tactical passing skills used by collegiate players in an indoor hockey masum tournament

The study aimed to determine the relationship of frequency for wall, diagonal and square passing with the performance for men and women team. Eighteen teams (man = 11; woman = 7) involved in this study. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to examine the relationship between frequency of use wall pass, diagonal pass and square pass with team performance. Results of the study showed a significant relationship between the frequency of the use of passes to the achievement of the team in both categories. The significant value of wall pass, diagonal pass and square pass for men and women teams is (p < 0.05). Positive relationship indicated team that use more wall, diagonal and square passing was a successful team in tournament. The findings for this study could be used by trainers and individuals who involved in the player development and coaches education.Keywords: indoor hockey; passing skills; wall pass; diagonal pass; square pas

Copy number variation of CNVesv27061 analysis among young adults with high blood pressure using optimized droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) method

Several reports and databases on genomic variants have associated variation in DNA sequences (≥ 1kb), or copy number variation (CNV), with susceptibility to common diseases. However, very few reports are found on hypertension and no study has been reported on CNV in prehypertensive and hypertensive young adult Malaysians. In this comparative cross-sectional study, 133 young adults were recruited, comprising of normotensive (45 subjects), prehypertensive (40 subjects) and mild hypertensive (48 subjects) subjects. DNA for CNV determination was extracted from 3 ml of blood samples collected. CNV esv27061 was analysed using optimized droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) method which has enhanced sensitivity and precision. Frequency distribution patterns of CNV among mild hypertensives showed highest peak copy-number-gain (number of copies more than 2) particularly in copy numbers 3 and 5. The prehypertensive subjects exhibited marked increase in copy number 5 when compared with normotensives. All the subjects in this study showed low frequency distribution pattern for copy numbers 2, 6 and 7. This discovery emphasizes the importance of frequency patterns in determining CNV status of prehypertensive and mild hypertensive subjects. Optimization method in this study showed that the detection of CNV esv27061 is possible in our sample population

Followership moderation between the relationship of transactional leadership style and employees reactions towards organizational change

The purpose of the present study is to analyze the relationship between transactional leadership style and factors of employees’ reactions towards organizational change in the telecommunication companies of Pakistan. Furthermore, to understand the importance of followership this study has also incorporated followership as a moderating variable. Quantitative methodology is applied to investigate the underline relationships. The Pearson correlation results have identified that transactional leadership is positively related to all three factors (frequency of change, trust in management, and employees’ participation) of employees’ reactions towards change. The moderation results further clarify that followership significantly moderates the relationship between transactional leadership style, frequency of change and employees participation. However, there is no moderation effect found between transactional leadership style and trust in management.Celem niniejszego badania jest analiza związku między stylem przywództwa transakcyjnego a czynnikami reakcji pracowników na zmiany organizacyjne w przedsiębiorstwach telekomunikacyjnych w Pakistanie. Ponadto, aby zrozumieć znaczenie podążania za przywódcą, zostało ono włączone jako zmienna moderująca. W celu zbadania istniejących zależności, zastosowana została metodologia ilościowa. Wyniki korelacji Pearsona wykazały, że przywództwo transakcyjne jest pozytywnie powiązane ze wszystkimi trzema czynnikami (częstością zmian, zaufaniem do zarządzania i udziałem pracowników) reakcji pracowników na zmiany. Uzyskane wyniki pozwoliły stwierdzić, że wyniki moderacji dodatkowo wyjaśniły, że podążanie za przywódcą znacząco moderowało związek pomiędzy stylem przywództwa transakcyjnego, częstotliwością zmian a udziałem pracowników. Jednak nie znaleziono efektu powiązania pomiędzy stylem przywództwa transakcyjnego a zaufaniem do zarządzania

Evaluation of Clustering and Multi-hop Routing Protocols in Mobile Ad-hoc Sensor Networks

Mobile ad-hoc sensor networks (MASNETs) have promised a wide variety of applications such as military sensor networks to detect and gain as much as possible about enemy movements and explosions. Most of these applications can be deployed either in static or mobile environment. In static WSNs, the change of sensor nodes topology is normally caused by node failure which is due to energy depletion. However, in MASNETs, the main reason of the topology change is caused by the node movement. Since the sensor nodes are limited in power supply and have a low radio frequency coverage, they are easily losing their connection with neighbours and difficult to transmit their packets towards sink node. The reconnection process from one node to another node consumes more energy that related to control packets. One of the techniques to conserve more energy is through topology management using clustering network. A HEED (Hybrid, Energy-Efficient, Distributed) is one of the clustering algorithm for sensor networks. In HEED, a node is elected to become a cluster head based on its residual energy and its communication cost in its neighbourhood. HEED clusters the network in a constant number of iterations, elects cluster heads that are well-distributed in the network, and incurs low message and communication overhead. In this research work, through extensive simulation we evaluated the capability of HEED on how far it can react to network topology change in MASNETs by comparing its performance with Surge multihop routing protocol in both static and mobile environment. We investigated the performance of both HEED and Surge in terms of the average percentage of packet loss and the average total energy consumption with various simulation times. From the detailed simulation results and analysis, HEED performs better than Surge in term of energy consumption in static network, but not performs as expected in mobile environment