Fully Fuzzy Linear System in Circuit Analysis with the Study of Weak Solution

In this paper, a simpler method to solve a fully fuzzy linear system (FFLS) with unrestricted coefficient matrix is discussed. FFLS is applied in circuit analysis instead of crisp linear system to reflect the real life situation much better. Arithmetic operations of triangular fuzzy number (TFN) are justified by forming FFLS in an electrical circuit with fuzzy sources and fuzzy resistors and then the system was solved by the simpler method. Finally, the case of weak solution is overcome by proposing a new definition of TFN. Keywords: Fuzzy number, Triangular fuzzy number, Fully fuzzy linear system, Circuit analysis, Weak solutio

Microhabitat use by the herpetofauna in mixed-evergreen and deciduous forests of Bangladesh

Microhabitats of 35 herpetofaunal species were studied by following visual encounter surveys and night searches with headlamps and flashlights. During the study period 3 nationally rare amphibian species were found: Xenophrys parva found in Dhopachari Reserve Forest, Chittagong beside a rocky Hill stream, Rhacophoruns htunwini found in Satchari National Park of Habiganj District in the undergrowth of mixed-evergreen forestand Kalophrynus interlineatus found in deciduous forest of Madhupur, in the slope of hillock. Among the amphibian species, most of the toads used the forest floor, the roots of trees, human settlement and slopes of the hillock as their microhabitat. The frogs used grasslands, forest floor with fallen leaves, water bodies and hill streams. Reptiles usually prefer to live in the bushy areas and also in trees, shrubs, rocks, under the fallen leaves, besides hill streams, under stones etc. Among the lizards Common Garden Lizard calotes versicolor was the most abundant in number and most of them used the undergrowth of the forest and bushy areas. The skinks used moist areas near hill streams and forest floor. The microhabitat is very specific for a species but many of the herpetofaunal species shared their microhabitat and also showed habitat preference

Activity budgets and dietary investigations of varanus salvator (Reptilia: Varanidae) in Karamjal ecotourism spot of Bangladesh Sundarbans mangrove forest

© 2017, Asociacion Herpetologica Espanola. All rights reserved. Tropical mangrove forest ecosystem of Sundarbans is considered as the most potential habitat for Varanus salvator in Bangladesh. The study was conducted to understand the general ecology and behavior of V. salvator, to assess its activity patterns and feeding ecology in and around Karamjal ecotourism spot of Bangladesh Sundarbans. The activities of water monitor were more frequently seen during 0900 - 1200 hrs, and 1530 - 1700 hrs of the day. The proportion of time spent on different behavioral states by the water monitors varied significantly between the wet and dry seasons. It was found that adult water monitors spent a highest proportion of time in foraging activity during the rainy or wet season, whereas during winter they spent most of the time basking. During this study, their diet was mostly crabs, although they also showed their character as scavengers. Since V. salvato r is an ectothermic species, the influence of environmental variables upon its activities in different habitats either in summer or in winter, should not be ignored

Activity budgets and dietary investigations of varanus salvator (Reptilia: Varanidae) in Karamjal ecotourism spot of Bangladesh Sundarbans mangrove forest

© 2017, Asociacion Herpetologica Espanola. All rights reserved. Tropical mangrove forest ecosystem of Sundarbans is considered as the most potential habitat for Varanus salvator in Bangladesh. The study was conducted to understand the general ecology and behavior of V. salvator, to assess its activity patterns and feeding ecology in and around Karamjal ecotourism spot of Bangladesh Sundarbans. The activities of water monitor were more frequently seen during 0900 - 1200 hrs, and 1530 - 1700 hrs of the day. The proportion of time spent on different behavioral states by the water monitors varied significantly between the wet and dry seasons. It was found that adult water monitors spent a highest proportion of time in foraging activity during the rainy or wet season, whereas during winter they spent most of the time basking. During this study, their diet was mostly crabs, although they also showed their character as scavengers. Since V. salvato r is an ectothermic species, the influence of environmental variables upon its activities in different habitats either in summer or in winter, should not be ignored

RIS-aided Mixed RF-FSO Wireless Networks: Secrecy Performance Analysis with Simultaneous Eavesdropping

The appearance of sixth-generation networks has resulted in the proposal of several solutions to tackle signal loss. One of these solutions is the utilization of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), which can reflect or refract signals as required. This integration offers significant potential to improve the coverage area from the sender to the receiver. In this paper, we present a comprehensive framework for analyzing the secrecy performance of a RIS-aided mixed radio frequency (RF)-free space optics (FSO) system, for the first time. Our study assumes that a secure message is transmitted from a RF transmitter to a FSO receiver through an intermediate relay. The RF link experiences Rician fading while the FSO link experiences M\'alaga distributed turbulence with pointing errors. We examine three scenarios: 1) RF-link eavesdropping, 2) FSO-link eavesdropping, and 3) a simultaneous eavesdropping attack on both RF and FSO links. We evaluate the secrecy performance using analytical expressions to compute secrecy metrics such as the average secrecy capacity, secrecy outage probability, strictly positive secrecy capacity, effective secrecy throughput, and intercept probability. Our results are confirmed via Monte-Carlo simulations and demonstrate that fading parameters, atmospheric turbulence conditions, pointing errors, and detection techniques play a crucial role in enhancing secrecy performance.Comment: No comment

Evaluation of lipid profile pattern and atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) having type-2 diabetes mellitus in Bangladesh

Background: Dyslipidemia has been noted to play an integral role in the pathogenesis and progression of micro and macrovascular complications in Diabetes Mellitus (DM) patients. The study was aimed to evaluate the prevalence and pattern of dyslipidemia and atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients as it has not been reported previously in BangladeshMethods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Armed Forces Institute of pathology, Bangladesh from November 2016 to October 2017. A total number of 300 patients having diabetes in the age group of 30-60 years have been selected using a non-probability method. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG), serum total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglyceride (TG) levels were estimated by laboratory tests.Results: The prevalence of dyslipidemia in at least one lipid parameter was found in 282 patients (94%), while 18 patients (6%) had no dyslipidemia. High levels of TC, TG and LDL-C were found in 134 (47.3%), 230 (76.7%) and 124 (41.3%) patients, respectively. On the other hand, low levels of HDL-C were found in 180 patients (60%). An increased risk of AIP was found in 298 patients (99.3%), whereas only 2 patients (0.7%) were in low risk. FPG was positively correlated with TC, TG, LDL-C and AIP, while negatively correlated with HDL-C. A significant positive correlation was also observed between FPG and AIP.Conclusions: The Study revealed that dyslipidemia is very common in type 2 diabetic patients and the most common abnormality observed was increased serum triglyceride levels followed by decreased serum HDL-C levels. The AIP is also significantly higher in type 2 diabetic patients

Network-based genetic profiling reveals cellular pathway differences between follicular thyroid carcinoma and follicular thyroid adenoma

Molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis and progression of malignant thyroid cancers, such as follicular thyroid carcinomas (FTCs), and how these differ from benign thyroid lesions, are poorly understood. In this study, we employed network-based integrative analyses of FTC and benign follicular thyroid adenoma (FTA) lesion transcriptomes to identify key genes and pathways that differ between them. We first analysed a microarray gene expression dataset (Gene Expression Omnibus GSE82208, n = 52) obtained from FTC and FTA tissues to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Pathway analyses of these DEGs were then performed using Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) resources to identify potentially important pathways, and protein-protein interactions (PPIs) were examined to identify pathway hub genes. Our data analysis identified 598 DEGs, 133 genes with higher and 465 genes with lower expression in FTCs. We identified four significant pathways (one carbon pool by folate, p53 signalling, progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation signalling, and cell cycle pathways) connected to DEGs with high FTC expression; eight pathways were connected to DEGs with lower relative FTC expression. Ten GO groups were significantly connected with FTC-high expression DEGs and 80 with low-FTC expression DEGs. PPI analysis then identified 12 potential hub genes based on degree and betweenness centrality; namely, TOP2A, JUN, EGFR, CDK1, FOS, CDKN3, EZH2, TYMS, PBK, CDH1, UBE2C, and CCNB2. Moreover, transcription factors (TFs) were identified that may underlie gene expression differences observed between FTC and FTA, including FOXC1, GATA2, YY1, FOXL1, E2F1, NFIC, SRF, TFAP2A, HINFP, and CREB1. We also identified microRNA (miRNAs) that may also affect transcript levels of DEGs; these included hsa-mir-335-5p, -26b-5p, -124-3p, -16-5p, -192-5p, -1-3p, -17-5p, -92a-3p, -215-5p, and -20a-5p. Thus, our study identified DEGs, molecular pathways, TFs, and miRNAs that reflect molecular mechanisms that differ between FTC and benign FTA. Given the general similarities of these lesions and common tissue origin, some of these differences may reflect malignant progression potential, and include useful candidate biomarkers for FTC and identifying factors important for FTC pathogenesis

BOOTSTRAP AND JACKKNIFE METHODS IN TWO-PHASE SAMPLING

In this paper, we have defined the biases and mean square errors of the two-phase sampling ratio and regression estimators in bootstrap and jackknife methods. From an empirical investigation, in the line of Reich et al. (1993), the ratio and regression estimators are compared using the classical, bootstrap and jackknife techniques

Exposure to urban green spaces and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from two low and lower-middle-income countries

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on mental health globally, with limited access to mental health care affecting low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) the most. In response, alternative strategies to support mental health have been necessary, with access to green spaces being a potential solution. While studies have highlighted the role of green spaces in promoting mental health during pandemic lockdowns, few studies have focused on the role of green spaces in mental health recovery after lockdowns. This study investigated changes in green space access and associations with mental health recovery in Bangladesh and Egypt across the pandemic. METHODS: An online survey was conducted between January and April 2021 after the first lockdown was lifted in Bangladesh (n = 556) and Egypt (n = 660). We evaluated indoor and outdoor greenery, including the number of household plants, window views, and duration of outdoor visits. The quantity of greenness was estimated using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). This index was estimated using satellite images with a resolution of 10x10m during the survey period (January-April 2021) with Sentinel-2 satellite in the Google Earth Engine platform. We calculated averages within 250m, 300m, 500m and 1000m buffers of the survey check-in locations using ArcGIS 10.3. Multiple linear regression models were used to evaluate relationships between changes in natural exposure and changes in mental health. RESULTS: The results showed that mental health improved in both countries after the lockdown period. People in both countries increased their time spent outdoors in green spaces after the lockdown period, and these increases in time outdoors were associated with improved mental health. Unexpectedly, changes in the number of indoor plants after the lockdown period were associated with contrasting mental health outcomes; more plants translated to increased anxiety and decreased depression. Refocusing lives after the pandemic on areas other than maintaining indoor plants may assist with worrying and feeling panicked. Still, indoor plants may assist with depressive symptoms for people remaining isolated. CONCLUSION: These findings have important implications for policymakers and urban planners in LMICs, highlighting the need to increase access to natural environments in urban areas to improve mental health and well-being in public health emergencies