Ground Penetrating Radar-based Deterioration Assessment of Bridge Decks

The ASCE report card 2013 rated bridges at a grade of C+, implying their condition is moderate and require immediate attention. Moreover, the Federal Highway Administration reported that it is required to invest more than $20.5 billion each year to eliminate the bridge deficient backlog by 2028. In Canada 2012, more than 50$90 billion are required to replace these bridges. Therefore, government agencies should have an accurate way to inspect and assess the corrosiveness of the bridges under their management. Numerical Amplitude method is one of the most common used methods to interpret Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) outputs, yet it does not have a fixed and informative numerical scale that is capable of accurately interpreting the condition of bridge decks. To overcome such problem, the present research aims at developing a numerical GPR-based scale with three thresholds and build deterioration models to assess the corrosiveness of bridge decks. Data, for more than 60 different bridge decks, were collected from previous research works and from surveys of bridge decks using a ground-coupled antenna with the frequency of 1.5 GHz. The amplitude values of top reinforcing rebars of each bridge deck were classified into four categories using k-means clustering technique. Statistical analysis was performed on the collected data to check the best-fit probability distribution and to choose the most appropriate parameters that affect thresholds of different categories of corrosion and deterioration. Monte-Carlo simulation technique was used to validate the value of these thresholds. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis was performed to realize the effect of changing the thresholds on the areas of corrosion. The final result of this research is a four-category GPR scale with numerical thresholds that can assess the corrosiveness of bridge decks. The developed scale has been validated using a case study on a newly constructed bridge deck and also by comparing maps created using the developed scale and other methods. The comparison shows sound and promising results that advance the state of the art of GPR output interpretation and analysis. In addition, deterioration models and curves have been developed using Weibull Distribution based on GPR outputs and corrosion areas. The developed new GPR scale and deterioration models will help the decision makers to assess accurately and objectively the corrosiveness of bridge decks. Hence, they will be able to take the right intervention decision for managing these decks

Clustering big urban data sets

Cities are producing and collecting massive amount of data from various sources such as transportation network, energy sector, smart homes, tax records, surveys, LIDAR data, mobile phones sensors etc. All of the aforementioned data, when connected via the Internet, fall under the Internet of Things (IoT) category. To use such a large volume of data for potential scientific computing benefits, it is important to store and analyze such amount of urban data using efficient computing resources and algorithms. However, this can be problematic due to many challenges. This article explores some of these challenges and test the performance of two partitional algorithms for clustering Big Urban Datasets, namely: the K-Means vs. the Fuzzy cMean (FCM). Clustering Big Urban Data in compact format represents the information of the whole data and this can benefit researchers to deal with this reorganized data much efficiently. Our experiments conclude that FCM outperformed the K-Means when presented with such type of dataset, however the later is lighter on the hardware utilisations

Modified Topological Image Preprocessing for Skin Lesion Classifications

This paper proposes a modified Topological Data Analysis model for skin images preprocessing and enhancements. The skin lesion dataset HAM10000 used with the intention of identifying the important objects in relevant regions of the images. In order to evaluate both the original dataset and the preprocessed dataset, Deep Convolutional Neural Network and Vision Transformer models were utilized to train both models. After training, the experimental results demonstrate that the images preprocessed using the Modified Topological Data Analysis consistently perform better.Comment: Presented at CSCE 2022, The 2022 World Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering & Applied Computing, July 25-28, 2022, Las Vegas, US

Production structure and technical efficiency analysis of sericulture in Pakistani Punjab

The objective of this paper are to study the sericulture production structure and the analysis of farm-level technical efficiency measures. The results show that most of the farmers involved in this enterprise are illiterate. This industry is further characterised by inappropraite rearing sheds, complete lack of extension service, dependence on government forests for mulbery leaves - facing peak season shortage, supply of poor quality silkworm seed and improper processing and marketing facilities. Labour shares more than 70 percent of the total cost of production and however, promises reasonably high return on investment. Stochastic production frontier analysis indicates that the sericulture enterprise faces increasing returns to scale. Average technical efficiency is found to be 0.88 with a minimum of 0.3 and a maximum of 0.98 leaving significant scope for improvement in productivity and thus profitability. The results further show that technical efficiency is positively associated with the size of the activity

Effect of environmrntal disturbances on odonata assemblages along a tropical polluted river

Odonata larvae have been intensively used as bioindicators for freshwater pollution as their community structure closely follow changes in the environment and habitat settings. In this study, 28 taxa of Odonata larvae were collected from three stations (upper, middle and lower) of a polluted river in Malaysia. The upper river basin receives effluents from an oil palm plantation. However, the middle station is presumably contaminated with anthropogenic wastes. The lower station is found to receive polluted discharges from aquaculture outlet. Several environmental parameters of water and sediment were continuously measured during the study. The water parameters showed no significant differences amongst the three stations. The species richness of Odonata was 22, 24 and 20 in the upper, middle and lower stations, respectively. The abundance of Odonata was significantly different among the studied sites. The tolerant damselfly, Pseudagrion sp. (41.22%), and facultative dragonflies, Onychothemis sp. (17.12%), were the most dominant taxa along the river stations. Onychothemis sp. and Paragomphus capricornis were equally important at the upper station [Important Species Index (ISI) 25.3 and 24.2%, respectively]. Pseudagrion sp. only scored an ISI value of 9.7%. Pseudagrion sp., P. capricornis and Onychothemis sp. were dominant in the middle station (ISI: 41.2%, 25.9% and 10.9% respectively), and Pseudagrion sp., Onychothemis sp. and Prodasineura sp. dominated the areas with dense growth of submerged aquatic weeds Hydrilla sp. in the lower station (ISI: 47.9, 24.5 and 13.8%, respectively). On the basis of the variations in larval abundance and ISI values, microhabitats differences partly in response to different types of pollutions entering the water structured the Odonata communities in this river basin

Comparative Bony Union Time Analysis of Dynamic Hip Screw and Proximal Femoral Plate Implants

Objective: To determine the comparative and effective applicability of the Dynamic Hip Screw (DHS), and proximal femoral plate (PFP) in terms of the rapid bony union and complications for treating unstable pertrochanteric fractures. Methodology: This comparative study was conducted at the Department of Orthopedic surgery, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad during a period of 8 months from August 2016 to April 2017. Patients ages of 45 to 90 years, with close fresh unstable pertrochanteric fractures (one week) and of either gender were included. All the patients were divided into two groups. Patients in group A underwent PFP treatment and patients of group B underwent DHS treatment. Patients were followed up after 6 weeks and then every 2 weekly afterwards for a total period of 3 months for assessment of bony union both clinically and radiologically. The data was collected on a pre-structured Performa, and analysis was done using SPSS version 26. Results: A total of 84 patients were analysed, and average age of the patients in the PFP group was 66.57 ± 11.71 years and in the DHS group was 70.14 ± 9.03 years. Females were found in majority in both groups. No union was found till six weeks in both groups, while on 2nd month followup, union was found significantly high 19.0% in cases of the PFP group, compared to the 2.4% in the DHS group (p-0.014). On 2.5th months the union rate was significantly higher 59.5% in the PFP group, compared to the 7.1% DHS group (p-0.014), while on the 3rd month followup the union was almost in all cases in both groups (p-0.557) and the overall average union duration was significantly lower in PFP group compared to the DHS (p-0.001). Conclusion: The proximal femoral plate technique for treating unstable pertrochanteric fractures was observed to be more effective in terms of significant rapid bony union with minimum complications compared to the Dynamic Hip Screw (DHS)

Improving Contractors' Practices of Industrialized Building System (IBS) Implementation in Construction Industry

Abstract: Nowadays, the Malaysian construction industry is moving forward to roll out technology advantage across project life-cycle for enhancing human development skills. Therefore, the government has adopted industrialized building systems (IBS) to enhance control and balance of workforce supply for overall project performance achievement. However, the challenges faced by the construction industry such as delay the completion of construction projects was due to poor contractors' practices. In addition, there are significant challenges related to contractors' practices for instance shortage of skill, practical know-how, worker capability, and financial difficulties in IBS implementation. Therefore the purpose of this study was to identify current practices and influencing factors of contractors' practices for IBS implementation in the construction industry. This study also determines the improved ways of contractors' practices for IBS implementation in the construction industry. The study was conducted in Johor Bahru, Johor where various development and construction activities are currently active. Quantitative method was conducted by distribution the questionnaires to Grade 7 (G7) contractors as study respondents which involved wide practices of IBS construction projects. Data collected were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) 22.0 software. The study reveals that, the problems faced by contractors in their practices of IBS implementation such as low productivity, management aspects, and financial problems. Therefore, training to labour, IBS instruction guideline and improving finance, and procurement mechanism are the top recommended factors to improve contractors' practices for successful IBS implementation. In conclusion, with the improvement of contractors' practices, the productivity of IBS implementation in the construction industry can be improved

Monitoring Diptera species of medical and veterinary importance in Saudi Arabia: Comparative efficacy of lure-baited and chromotropic traps

Abstract A number of Diptera species have medical and veterinary importance as they cause myiasis and act as vectors for protozoans, helminth eggs, as well as bacterial pathogens. In this research here, eleven Diptera species were monitored in five locations in Northwestern part of Saudi Arabia, using three types of traps (lure-baited traps, window fly trap and yellow sticky traps). As a general trend, the dominant flies were Musca domestica, Musca sorbens, Calliphora sp., blowfly Chrysomya sp. and Sarcophaga haemorrhidalis. No significant differences were observed among the total number of flies collected indoor and outdoor at each site using different traps. In the slaughter house, the three types of traps showed significant differences in the mean of collected flies (F = 4.135). Lure-baited traps showed significant differences in the abundance of the flies collected over the other two traps. In vegetable markets, fly abundance varied significantly among the three types of traps (F = 13.934). In the animal market, the mean number of flies collected varied significantly among the three types of traps (F = 4.792). Similar patterns of variation in the number of flies collected by different traps were shown in farms (F = 4.747). However, in the residential area, no significant difference was detected in the mean number of flies collected by three traps (F = 2.620). M. domestica was found to be the most abundant species in all locations with a remarkable high abundance in animal facilities, and the lure-baited traps were found to be the most effective for monitoring fly abundance. Overall, our research adds basic knowledge for future control programs against flies of medical and veterinary importance in Saudi Arabia