Prospects of Rice Husk Gasification for Power Generation in Bangladesh

Electricity is the basic requirement to promote socio-economic development. In recent years, Bangladesh is facing severe power crisis all over the country, but the rural areas are the most vulnerable. This acute electricity crisis along with the conventional fuel crunch is affecting every sector of the country and economy is being crippled. To reduce the dependency on fossil fuels, rice husk which are widely abundant agricultural waste from rice industry could play a vital role in this regards. Bangladesh is an agricultural country and produces huge quantity of rice every year. In the year 2011, the total rice production was around 50.63 million tones. Husk is the waste biomass produce during the rice processing, on average it accounts around 20% of the rice produced on weight basis (10.12 million tones). The potential of power generation from rice husk by gasification is around 310 MWe in Bangladesh. The power plant to be installed near the large rice mills `cluster area' in Dinajpur, Bogra, Naogaon, Chapainawabganj and Ishwardi with the surplus rice husk. This paper consolidates information from various studies on the availability of rice husk, its characterization and estimates possible power potential that can be realized

Economic Evaluation of the PV Micro Utilities Installed by Grameen Shakti for Rural Electrification in Bangladesh

Sharing expensive technology can serve many users, even poor users. Grameen Shakti has developed a special programnamed PV micro utility to make it easier for those who cannot afford SHSs individually. Under this program, GrameenShakti allows people to share the cost and the subsequent benefit of using a SHS. In this study, operation and financialmechanism, analysis of cost of systems, tariff system, simple payback period, NPV and IRR of the micro utility systemshave been analyzed to show the financial viability of PV MU from the PV MU owner’s perspective. Results suggest thatthese systems have simple payback period of around 4-6 years. The NPV of systems varied from 27,000 BDT to 144,000BDT. The levelized electricity cost of PV MU systems is 70 BDT (~0.86 $)/kWh in Bangladesh. The owner has to spendonly 7.50 BDT/day but can earn at least 30-40 BDT per day, and up to 130-200 BDT/day.Keywords - Rural Electrification, Solar PV, Grameen Shakti, Bangladesh, Economic Evaluation

IOT Based Solar Powered Automated Fish Feeding System

To minimize manual labor in aquaculture, this paper proposed an IOT-based solar-powered automated fish feeding system. Fish feeders will be readily managed from mobile phones utilizing the mobile app and the dashboard with only one click at any time and from anywhere. To create such a system, we utilized Arduino, DC gear motor, ESP32+SIM800L, and MATLAB Simulink to analyze the system outcome. The simulation of our design was done in MATLAB Simulink. In MATLAB Simulink from the DC power generation unit, the monitoring data will be the generated DC voltage, current, power, etc. The hardware design of the prototype is also demonstrated.  The individual is capable to instruct the system through a wireless connection at a specific time to supply food to the fish. The major goals of this project are to offer consistent feeding without interfering with the owner's job. An IOT-based and smart power managing system confirmed the feasibility of the use of the proposed system with a prototype hardware system including simulation results

Kinematic measurements of novel chaotic micromixers to enhance mixing performances at low reynolds numbers : Comparative study

Funding Information: Funding: This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. 2019R1A2C1007657). The authors gratefully acknowledge this support.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Processing of Spontaneous Emotional Responses in Adolescents and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders Effect of Stimulus Type

YesRecent research has shown that adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have difficulty interpreting others' emotional responses, in order to work out what actually happened to them. It is unclear what underlies this difficulty; important cues may be missed from fast paced dynamic stimuli, or spontaneous emotional responses may be too complex for those with ASD to successfully recognise. To explore these possibilities, 17 adolescents and adults with ASD and 17 neurotypical controls viewed 21 videos and pictures of peoples' emotional responses to gifts (chocolate, a handmade novelty or Monopoly money), then inferred what gift the person received and the emotion expressed by the person while eye movements were measured. Participants with ASD were significantly more accurate at distinguishing who received a chocolate or homemade gift from static (compared to dynamic) stimuli, but significantly less accurate when inferring who received Monopoly money from static (compared to dynamic) stimuli. Both groups made similar emotion attributions to each gift in both conditions (positive for chocolate, feigned positive for homemade and confused for Monopoly money). Participants with ASD only made marginally significantly fewer fixations to the eyes of the face, and face of the person than typical controls in both conditions. Results suggest adolescents and adults with ASD can distinguish subtle emotion cues for certain emotions (genuine from feigned positive) when given sufficient processing time, however, dynamic cues are informative for recognising emotion blends (e.g. smiling in confusion). This indicates difficulties processing complex emotion responses in ASD

Global burden and strength of evidence for 88 risk factors in 204 countries and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

Background: Understanding the health consequences associated with exposure to risk factors is necessary to inform public health policy and practice. To systematically quantify the contributions of risk factor exposures to specific health outcomes, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 aims to provide comprehensive estimates of exposure levels, relative health risks, and attributable burden of disease for 88 risk factors in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, from 1990 to 2021. Methods: The GBD 2021 risk factor analysis used data from 54 561 total distinct sources to produce epidemiological estimates for 88 risk factors and their associated health outcomes for a total of 631 risk–outcome pairs. Pairs were included on the basis of data-driven determination of a risk–outcome association. Age-sex-location-year-specific estimates were generated at global, regional, and national levels. Our approach followed the comparative risk assessment framework predicated on a causal web of hierarchically organised, potentially combinative, modifiable risks. Relative risks (RRs) of a given outcome occurring as a function of risk factor exposure were estimated separately for each risk–outcome pair, and summary exposure values (SEVs), representing risk-weighted exposure prevalence, and theoretical minimum risk exposure levels (TMRELs) were estimated for each risk factor. These estimates were used to calculate the population attributable fraction (PAF; ie, the proportional change in health risk that would occur if exposure to a risk factor were reduced to the TMREL). The product of PAFs and disease burden associated with a given outcome, measured in disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), yielded measures of attributable burden (ie, the proportion of total disease burden attributable to a particular risk factor or combination of risk factors). Adjustments for mediation were applied to account for relationships involving risk factors that act indirectly on outcomes via intermediate risks. Attributable burden estimates were stratified by Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile and presented as counts, age-standardised rates, and rankings. To complement estimates of RR and attributable burden, newly developed burden of proof risk function (BPRF) methods were applied to yield supplementary, conservative interpretations of risk–outcome associations based on the consistency of underlying evidence, accounting for unexplained heterogeneity between input data from different studies. Estimates reported represent the mean value across 500 draws from the estimate's distribution, with 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) calculated as the 2·5th and 97·5th percentile values across the draws. Findings: Among the specific risk factors analysed for this study, particulate matter air pollution was the leading contributor to the global disease burden in 2021, contributing 8·0% (95% UI 6·7–9·4) of total DALYs, followed by high systolic blood pressure (SBP; 7·8% [6·4–9·2]), smoking (5·7% [4·7–6·8]), low birthweight and short gestation (5·6% [4·8–6·3]), and high fasting plasma glucose (FPG; 5·4% [4·8–6·0]). For younger demographics (ie, those aged 0–4 years and 5–14 years), risks such as low birthweight and short gestation and unsafe water, sanitation, and handwashing (WaSH) were among the leading risk factors, while for older age groups, metabolic risks such as high SBP, high body-mass index (BMI), high FPG, and high LDL cholesterol had a greater impact. From 2000 to 2021, there was an observable shift in global health challenges, marked by a decline in the number of all-age DALYs broadly attributable to behavioural risks (decrease of 20·7% [13·9–27·7]) and environmental and occupational risks (decrease of 22·0% [15·5–28·8]), coupled with a 49·4% (42·3–56·9) increase in DALYs attributable to metabolic risks, all reflecting ageing populations and changing lifestyles on a global scale. Age-standardised global DALY rates attributable to high BMI and high FPG rose considerably (15·7% [9·9–21·7] for high BMI and 7·9% [3·3–12·9] for high FPG) over this period, with exposure to these risks increasing annually at rates of 1·8% (1·6–1·9) for high BMI and 1·3% (1·1–1·5) for high FPG. By contrast, the global risk-attributable burden and exposure to many other risk factors declined, notably for risks such as child growth failure and unsafe water source, with age-standardised attributable DALYs decreasing by 71·5% (64·4–78·8) for child growth failure and 66·3% (60·2–72·0) for unsafe water source. We separated risk factors into three groups according to trajectory over time: those with a decreasing attributable burden, due largely to declining risk exposure (eg, diet high in trans-fat and household air pollution) but also to proportionally smaller child and youth populations (eg, child and maternal malnutrition); those for which the burden increased moderately in spite of declining risk exposure, due largely to population ageing (eg, smoking); and those for which the burden increased considerably due to both increasing risk exposure and population ageing (eg, ambient particulate matter air pollution, high BMI, high FPG, and high SBP). Interpretation: Substantial progress has been made in reducing the global disease burden attributable to a range of risk factors, particularly those related to maternal and child health, WaSH, and household air pollution. Maintaining efforts to minimise the impact of these risk factors, especially in low SDI locations, is necessary to sustain progress. Successes in moderating the smoking-related burden by reducing risk exposure highlight the need to advance policies that reduce exposure to other leading risk factors such as ambient particulate matter air pollution and high SBP. Troubling increases in high FPG, high BMI, and other risk factors related to obesity and metabolic syndrome indicate an urgent need to identify and implement interventions. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Working Capital Management and Profitability: A Study on Cement Industry in Bangladesh

Working capital management is the key to success for the manufacturing firm. As a manufacturing firm the profitability of cement industry mainly depends on the efficient management of working capital e.g. managing the current assets and current liabilities satisfactorily. This study is decorated to outline the profitability and working capital position of selected cement industries, correlation between them and whether the profitability is affected by working capital management. Ratio Analysis have been used to show Profitability position & Working Capital position, Correlation Matrix have been used to show correlation between them and Regression Analysis have been used to show the impact of Working Capital management on Profitability respectively. The study is mainly based on secondary data. The study reveals that Profitability position & Working Capital position over the study period is not satisfactory. From the study it is also found that there is significantly positive correlation between profitability and working capital components as well as impact of day sales outstanding (DSO) on profitability ratios is negatively significant. The study recommended that sample cement industries should reduce their day sales outstanding (DSO) for improving their profitability position. Keywords: Profitability, Working capital management, Inventory conversion period, Day sales outstanding, Payable deferred period, cash conversion period, cement industry