Enhancing Disaster Resilience through Human Capital: Prospects for Adaptation to Cyclones in Coastal Bangladesh

The world continues to face disasters on an unprecedented scale. In the last few decades, a majority of the natural disasters were caused by floods, storms, droughts, and other weather-related stress and shocks. Human, social, natural, financial, and physical capitals are needed in order to cope with stress and shocks as well as for the pursuit of livelihood strategies. Every year, coastal residents of Bangladesh fight against cyclone and storm surge impacts. As a result, the magnitude of fragility and sensitivity to this adverse condition is increasing in terms of the socioeconomic livelihood of coastal households. Therefore, it is a matter of top priority to enhance resilience to cyclones and storm surges at the household level; however, determining how disaster resilience can be enhanced is challenging. Over the last decade, many studies have explored ways in which to strengthen disas-ter resilience in terms of social, physical, and financial capital. However, few studies have consid-ered the contribution of human capital to the enhancement of cyclone- and storm-surge resilience in the coastal area of Bangladesh. This study seeks to address this lacuna. The study conceptualized human capital based on six pillars that were knowledge obtained through (a) formal schooling, college, and university education; (b) vocational education and training (VET); (c) learning by doing; (d) interaction and participation; (e) experiences and indigenous activities; and (f) the ability to work. Disaster resilience was measured by the sum of four components: household infrastructure component (HIC), household economic component (HEC), household self-organization and learning component (HSoLC), and social safety nets (SSN). While applying mostly quantitative research strategies, this study essentially used a mixed-method approach based on quantitative and qualitative data. Adopting a quantitative strategy (household survey), this study first explored the status of human capital (e.g., formal education, vocational ed-ucation and training, practical skills, knowledge obtained through prior experience, and health) and other forms of capital, including social (bonding, bridging, and linking ties), financial (savings and loans), and physical (housing, household machinery, and access to households facilities). Second, the interrelation between human and other forms of capitals were examined. Third, the relationship between human capital and disaster resilience at the household level was clarified. However, quali-tative strategies (informal discussions and key informant interviews) were used to understand the crucial components of disaster resilience, including the impacts of Cyclones Sidr and Aila, effective coping strategies, background reasons for varying capital in different villages, and contribution of various components of human capital to strengthen resilience to cyclone and storm surges. The empirical findings are based on a household survey conducted from mid-October 2014 to mid-February 2015 (sample size of 1,188, which related to 6,132 individuals in total) in nine coastal vil-lages within the districts of Khulna, Bagherhat, Pataukhali, Lakshmipur, and Noakhali of Bangla-desh. To understand the status of household capital in the study area, descriptive statistics were used. Furthermore, principal component analysis was used to construct capitals and the disaster-resilience index, and logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the contribution of human capital to the enhancement of disaster resilience. The study shows that the status of households, such as human, social financial, physical, and natu-ral capitals, is mostly poor in the study area. However, the status of household capitals differed ge-ographically (e.g., inland, shore-land, and island). Status of household capitals inland is relatively better than that of island and shore-land areas. Social, physical, and financial capitals have a signifi-cant and positive correlation with human capital, while natural capital does not show any significant correlation. Human capital in the study was found to have a strong and significant correlation with financial capital. Finally, the study proves that human capital makes a significant and positive con-tribution to disaster resilience at the household level. Particularly formal education, fluency in Eng-lish speaking, vocational education and training, practical skills, adult education, knowledge ob-tained through economic co-operatives programs, learning acquired from awareness programs, ex-perience from previous disasters, the ability to work are the key tools for enhancing disaster resili-ence. These findings indicate that human capital plays a crucial role in enhancing disaster resilience in the study area. Using similar methods, future investigations can deal with the contribution of oth-er forms of capital, that is, social, physical, financial and natural in enhancing disaster resilience

An Analytical Framework for Control Synthesis of Cyber-Physical Systems with Safety Guarantee

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are required to operate safely under fault and malicious attacks. The simplex architecture and the recently proposed cyber resilient architectures, e.g., Byzantine fault tolerant++ (BFT++), provide safety for CPS under faults and malicious cyber attacks, respectively. However, these existing architectures make use of different timing parameters and implementations to provide safety, and are seemingly unrelated. In this paper, we propose an analytical framework to represent the simplex, BFT++ and other practical cyber resilient architectures (CRAs). We construct a hybrid system that models CPS adopting any of these architectures. We derive sufficient conditions via our proposed framework under which a control policy is guaranteed to be safe. We present an algorithm to synthesize the control policy. We validate the proposed framework using a case study on lateral control of a Boeing 747, and demonstrate that our proposed approach ensures safety of the system

Microvision: Static analysis-based approach to visualizing microservices in augmented reality

Microservices are supporting digital transformation; however, fundamental tools and system perspectives are missing to better observe, understand, and manage these systems, their properties, and their dependencies. Microservices architecture leans toward decentralization, which yields many advantages to system operation; it, however, brings challenges to their development. Microservices lack a system-centric perspective to better cope with system evolution and quality assessment. In this work, we explore microservice-specific architecture reconstruction based on static analysis. Such reconstruction typically results in system models to visualize selected system-centric perspectives. Conventional models are limited in utility when the service cardinality is high. We consider an alternative data visualization using 3D space using augmented reality. To begin testing the feasibility of deriving such perspectives from microservice systems, we developed and implemented prototype tools for software architecture reconstruction and visualization of compared perspectives

A Compositional Resilience Index for Computationally Efficient Safety Analysis of Interconnected Systems

Interconnected systems such as power systems and chemical processes are often required to satisfy safety properties in the presence of faults and attacks. Verifying safety of these systems, however, is computationally challenging due to nonlinear dynamics, high dimensionality, and combinatorial number of possible faults and attacks that can be incurred by the subsystems interconnected within the network. In this paper, we develop a compositional resilience index to verify safety properties of interconnected systems under faults and attacks. The resilience index is a tuple serving the following two purposes. First, it quantifies how a safety property is impacted when a subsystem is compromised by faults and attacks. Second, the resilience index characterizes the needed behavior of a subsystem during normal operations to ensure safety violations will not occur when future adverse events occur. We develop a set of sufficient conditions on the dynamics of each subsystem to satisfy its safety constraint, and leverage these conditions to formulate an optimization program to compute the resilience index. When multiple subsystems are interconnected and their resilience indices are given, we show that the safety constraints of the interconnected system can be efficiently verified by solving a system of linear inequalities. We demonstrate our developed resilience index using a numerical case study on chemical reactors connected in series

Microservice Architecture Reconstruction and Visualization Techniques: A Review

Microservice system solutions are driving digital transformation; however, fundamental tools and system perspectives are missing to better observe, understand, and manage these systems, their properties, and their dependencies. Microservices architecture leads towards decentralization, which implies many advantages to system operation; it, however, brings challenges to their development. Microservice systems often lack a system-centric perspective that would help engineers better cope with system evolution and quality assessment. In this work, we explored microservice-specific architecture reconstruction based on static analysis. Such reconstruction typically results in system models to visualize selected system-centric perspectives. Conventional models involve 2D methods; however, these methods are limited in utility when services proliferate. We considered various architectural perspectives relevant to microservices and assessed the relevancy of the traditional method, comparing it to alternative data visualization using 3D space. As a representative of the 3D method, we considered a 3D graph model presented in augmented reality. To begin testing the feasibility of deriving such perspectives from microservice systems, we developed and implemented prototype tools for software architecture reconstruction and visualization of compared perspectives. Using these prototypes, we performed a small user study with software practitioners to highlight the potentials and limitations of these innovative visualizations used for common practitioner reasoning and tasks

A Compositional Approach to Safety-Critical Resilient Control for Systems with Coupled Dynamics

Complex, interconnected Cyber-physical Systems (CPS) are increasingly common in applications including smart grids and transportation. Ensuring safety of interconnected systems whose dynamics are coupled is challenging because the effects of faults and attacks in one sub-system can propagate to other sub-systems and lead to safety violations. In this paper, we study the problem of safety-critical control for CPS with coupled dynamics when some sub-systems are subject to failure or attack. We first propose resilient-safety indices (RSIs) for the faulty or compromised sub-systems that bound the worst-case impacts of faulty or compromised sub-systems on a set of specified safety constraints. By incorporating the RSIs, we provide a sufficient condition for the synthesis of control policies in each failure- and attack- free sub-systems. The synthesized control policies compensate for the impacts of the faulty or compromised sub-systems to guarantee safety. We formulate sum-of-square optimization programs to compute the RSIs and the safety-ensuring control policies. We present a case study that applies our proposed approach on the temperature regulation of three coupled rooms. The case study demonstrates that control policies obtained using our algorithm guarantee system's safety constraints

Evaluation of optimizing Monteggia fracture-dislocation care: surgical innovations, radiological insights, and functional rehabilitation in adult patients

Background: Monteggia fractures, rare in adults, involve proximal ulna fracture and radial head dislocation. Managing these injuries poses challenges, fueling historical debates and driving advancements in internal fixation. Watson Jones' frustration highlights the ongoing pursuit of effective surgical approaches for optimal outcomes and functional limb restoration. his study aims to evaluate Monteggia fracture-dislocation treatment by analyzing radiological outcomes for structural insights and alignment post-surgery. Methods: This prospective observational study, conducted at Swapno general hospital, Mirpur-2, Dhaka, Bangladesh from 1st January 2021 to 31 January 2024, enrolled 30 patients with radiologically confirmed Monteggia fracture-dislocation. Surgical procedures involved creating an interval, anatomical reduction, and fixation, with regular follow-ups assessing outcomes, including range of motion, X-rays, and VAS scores, while statistical analysis utilized SPSS version 23. Results: The highest frequency percentage in the age distribution was observed among individuals aged 41-45, constituting 20% of the total sample, while the lowest frequencies were recorded in the 31-35 and >51 age groups, each representing 10% of the sample. Physical assault emerged as the leading cause of injury, accounting for 40% of cases, followed by road traffic accidents at 36.66% and falls at 23.33%. In terms of final outcomes, the majority of patients (43.33%) achieved a good outcome, while the lowest percentage (10%) resulted in poor outcomes.  Conclusions: In conclusion, addressing Monteggia fracture-dislocation in adults requires navigating inherent complexities. Modern internal fixation methods prove impactful, emphasizing the need for precise classification and stable anatomical reduction

Performance Optimization of Solar Photovoltaic System using Parabolic Trough and Fresnel Mirror Solar Concentrator

An attempt has been taken to design parabolic trough and Fresnel mirror solar concentrator with the purpose of optimizing the output power of a photovoltaic system for both bright sunny day and cloudy day by using a 72-cell 5W photovoltaic solar panel. The PV system's efficiency has been analyzed in terms of output voltage, current, and power of the solar panel. Accordingly to our expectation, we observed that on a bright sunny day, the output power improvement of the solar panel is 26.81% for the parabolic trough and 17.89% for the Fresnel mirror concentrator. On a cloudy day, both concentrators improve output power by 22.3% and 14.1%, respectively. In terms of power optimization of a photovoltaic system, the following has been discerned: a solar photovoltaic concentrator system with a parabolic trough is much more effective than one with a Fresnel mirror

A 48–year–old female presented with severe neck pain

This article has no abstract. The first 100 words appear below: A 48-year-old married female got admitted on 8th September 2017 into the Boarder Guard Hospital, Pilkhana, Dhaka, Bangladesh with the complaints of severe neck pain associated with low grade backache for the last four years. This patient is hailing from Soliabazar, Jashore, Southwestern region of Bangladesh where she was treated with local doctors by cervical collar and analgesics for her neck and back pain. As the pain did not subside, so she was brought by her brother-in-law who is a BGB soldier to Boarder Guard hospital for better management