Extracting Relevant Information Using Handheld Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality (AR) technology is being incorporated into education materials to attract students and to make the learning experience more engaging. This study focuses on the development of 3D object, audio-visual and interaction in Handheld AR. This research aims to bridge that gap using Handheld AR for a magazine, which allows students to get an overview and interact with the 3D model of the campus, view general information and events of the university. This magazine also benefits students that live outside Dhaka, who are unable to visit the campus beforehand. The users can use their Android phone camera for real-time video capture and render virtual objects in the augmented environment through Vuforia and Unity engine integration. To evaluate system effectiveness and user satisfaction, a survey is conducted. The survey consists of user background information, functionality tests and a user feedback questionnaire. The outcome of the survey shows satisfactory of the successful implementation of 3D and multimedia modules. This paper also discusses the future scopes and summarizes how to extract relevant information for students to gain knowledge and get entertainment by using handheld AR

Minimizing Errors in RT-PCR Detection and Quantification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA for Wastewater Surveillance

Wastewater surveillance for pathogens using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is an effective, resource-efficient tool for gathering additional community-level public health information, including the incidence and/or prevalence and trends of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater may provide an early-warning signal of COVID-19 infections in a community. The capacity of the world’s environmental microbiology and virology laboratories for SARS-CoV-2 RNA characterization in wastewater is rapidly increasing. However, there are no standardized protocols nor harmonized quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) procedures for SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance. This paper is a technical review of factors that can lead to false-positive and -negative errors in the surveillance of SARS-CoV-2, culminating in recommendations and strategies that can be implemented to identify and mitigate these errors. Recommendations include, stringent QA/QC measures, representative sampling approaches, effective virus concentration and efficient RNA extraction, amplification inhibition assessment, inclusion of sample processing controls, and considerations for RT-PCR assay selection and data interpretation. Clear data interpretation guidelines (e.g., determination of positive and negative samples) are critical, particularly during a low incidence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. Corrective and confirmatory actions must be in place for inconclusive and/or potentially significant results (e.g., initial onset or reemergence of COVID-19 in a community). It will also be prudent to perform inter-laboratory comparisons to ensure results are reliable and interpretable for ongoing and retrospective analyses. The strategies that are recommended in this review aim to improve SARS-CoV-2 characterization for wastewater surveillance applications. A silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the efficacy of wastewater surveillance was demonstrated during this global crisis. In the future, wastewater will play an important role in the surveillance of a range of other communicable diseases.Highlights: Harmonized QA/QC procedures for SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance are lacking; Wastewater analysis protocols are not optimized for trace analysis of viruses; False-positive and -negative errors have consequences for public health responses; Inter-laboratory studies utilizing standardized reference materials and protocols are needed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Ownership, risk-taking and performance of banks in emerging economies: evidence from India

Purpose – This paper examines the effect of ownership structure on bank risk-taking and performance in emerging economies by using India as a case study.Design/methodology/approach – We use generalised method of moments (GMM) estimation technique to analyse an unbalanced panel data set covering 217 bank-year observations from 2008 to 2011.Findings – Overall, our study results suggest that government ownership is positively associated with default risk and negatively related to bank profitability. Interestingly, we find foreign ownership having a positive effect on default risk and a negative effect on profitability among the listed commercial banks. The effect of ownership concentration on bank risk-taking and profitability appears to be statistically insignificant.Originality/value – This study is among the first to consider the impact of ownership on bank risk-taking and profitability from an emerging economy perspective. It also addresses the problem of endogenous relationships among ownership, risk-taking and performance of a bank. This study is likely to have implications for policymakers in undertaking regulatory reforms relating to ownership, risk management and banking sector stability

Earnings quality and financial flexibility: A moderating role of corporate governance

The aim of this study is primarily to demonstrate how earnings quality is an influential determinant of financial flexibility. Secondly, how earnings quality affects financial flexibility. And finally, to provide evidence of the role of corporate governance between earnings quality and financial flexibility composing overall corporate governance index (CG-INDEX). This study considered unbalanced panel data from the year 2007 to 2020 from the database CSMAR yielding 14,088 firm-year observations. This study used liquidity as the proxy of financial flexibility, and also used a comprehensive index of corporate governance constructed by adopting the principal component analysis and STATA has been used for analyzing data. The study used System GMM regression for analysis and controls endogeneity by applying lag financial flexibility as an instrumental variable. The empirical results reveal that poor earnings quality significantly negatively influences the level of corporate financial flexibility. The results also demonstrate that corporate governance can significantly positively moderate the relationship between earnings quality and financial flexibility. This suggests that when the earnings quality is poor, firms are less likely to be financially flexible in holding liquidity. More specifically, firms with poor earnings quality will reduce their financial flexibility of firms; hence, firms need to provide high-quality earnings in order to be more financially flexible. Earnings quality is an important factor, which led the author to examine how earnings quality influences financial flexibility. Under the views of agency theory and positive accounting theory, poor earnings quality is a source of amplified shareholder’s concern of increased informational asymmetry, which may adversely affect the firm’s financial flexibility. Conversely, higher earnings quality reduces the information asymmetry which leads to higher financial flexibility. This study provides a way how to achieve financial flexibility with the assistance of corporate governance which is essential to combat financial crises and smooth business operations successfully

Shifting generation of energy of solar PV using OPTANG method-case study Sandwip area

The objective of this paper is to discover the amount of shifted energy produced by solar photovoltaic panel from lower demand period to higher demand period using the optimum tilt angle method. When the incident ray is at right angles to the panel plane, the output of a panel is highest. For maximum generation, the alignment of the panel should be changed according to the sun's position due to variations in the locus of the sun over the year. However, solar tracking system may not be suitable for this purpose as it requires high cost, maintenance and space. For an isolated area demand profile and generation profile may not be same and hence surplus or shortage will be occurred. It is hardly possible to use surplus energy considering certain demand profile constraints. Even, it is not possible to store the surplus energy of a season to any device for long time to use it for another season. Optimum tilt angle (OPTANG) method has been analysed for an isolated island of Bangladesh and shown that it is possible to shift the surplus energy to shortage season from surplus season

Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 variants in wastewater of Dhaka City, Bangladesh : approach to complement public health surveillance systems

Background Wastewater-based epidemiological surveillance has been considered a powerful tool for early detection and monitoring of the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 and its lineages circulating in a community. This study is aimed to investigate the complexity of SARS-CoV-2 infection dynamics in Dhaka city by examining its genetic variants in wastewater. Also, the study seeks to determine a connection between the SARS-CoV-2 variations detected in clinical testing and those found in wastewater samples. Results Out of 504 samples tested in RT-qPCR, 185 (36.7%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA. The median log10 concentration of SARS-CoV-2 N gene copies/Liter of wastewater (gc/L) was 5.2, and the median log10 concentration of ORF1ab was 4.9. To further reveal the genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2, ten samples with ORF1ab real-time RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values ranging from 28.78 to 32.13 were subjected to whole genome sequencing using nanopore technology. According to clade classification, sequences from wastewater samples were grouped into 4 clades: 20A, 20B, 21A, 21J, and the Pango lineage, B.1, B.1.1, B.1.1.25, and B.1.617.2, with coverage ranging from 94.2 to 99.8%. Of them, 70% belonged to clade 20B, followed by 10% to clade 20A, 21A, and 21J. Lineage B.1.1.25 was predominant in Bangladesh and phylogenetically related to the sequences from India, the USA, Canada, the UK, and Italy. The Delta variant (B.1.617.2) was first identified in clinical samples at the beginning of May 2021. In contrast, we found that it was circulating in the community and was detected in wastewater in September 2020. Conclusion Environmental surveillance is useful for monitoring temporal and spatial trends of existing and emerging infectious diseases and supports evidence-based public health measures. The findings of this study supported the use of wastewater-based epidemiology and provided the baseline data for the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 variants in the wastewater environment in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Pivotal relationship between heavy metal, PM2.5 exposures and tuberculosis in Bangladeshi children: protocol paper of a case–control study

Introduction Air pollution is a global issue that poses a significant threat to public health. Children, due to their developing physiology, are particularly susceptible to the inhalation of environmental pollutants. Exposure can trigger immune modulation and organ damage, increasing susceptibility to respiratory diseases. Therefore, we aim to examine the association between heavy metal and particulate matter exposure with tuberculosis in children.Methods and analysis As a case–control study, we will include children diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis (n=60) and matched healthy controls (n=80) recruited from the same communities in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Exposure data for both cases and controls will be collected by a trained field team conducting home visits. They will administer an exposure questionnaire, measure child anthropometry, collect blood and household dust samples and instal 48-hour air quality monitors. The blood samples will be analysed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for serum heavy metal concentrations (lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury and chromium), as a representative marker of exposure, and the presence of inflammatory biomarkers. Descriptive and inferential statistics, including independent samples t-tests, analysis of variance and conditional regression analysis, will be used to quantify heavy metal and particulate matter exposure status in tuberculosis cases compared with healthy controls, while accounting for potential confounders. Dust samples and air quality results will be analysed to understand household sources of heavy metal and particulate matter exposure. To test the study hypothesis, there is a positive association between exposure and tuberculosis diseases, we will also measure the accumulated effect of simultaneous exposures using Bayesian statistical modelling.Ethics and dissemination This study has been approved by International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh’s Institutional Review Board (PR-22030). The study findings will be disseminated at conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals

Cigarette smoking and associated factors among men in five South Asian countries: A pooled analysis of nationally representative surveys

Smoking is one of the leading causes of premature deaths worldwide. The cigarette is the commonest form of tobacco smoking. This study investigated the factors associated with cigarette smoking among men in five South Asian countries. We analyzed nationally representative cross-sectional study (Demographic and Health Survey) data conducted in Afghanistan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Pakistan from 2015–2018. Our study population was men aged between 15 and 49 years. The outcome variable was the prevalence of cigarette smoking. We performed both pooled and country-specific analyses using multivariable logistic regression. The prevalence of cigarette smoking among men is the highest (41.2%) in the Maldives and the lowest (20.1%) in Pakistan. Our pooled analysis found that higher age, lower education, lower wealth status, and involvement in any occupations were strongly associated with cigarette smoking (p-value <0.001). However, we did not find a significant association between age and wealth status in Afghanistan, occupations in Nepal and Pakistan, and education in Pakistan with cigarette smoking when country-specific analyses were performed. In this study, socioeconomic position, age, and urban area are strongly associated with cigarette smoking in South Asian countries. The country-specific circumstances should be considered in planning and designing national smoking control strategies and interventions. However, improving access to smoking cessation services could be an effective intervention for all studied countries, Afghanistan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Pakistan