An Overview of Construction Waste Management

The need of construction projects is increasing day by day in developing countries to improve and build new infrastructures. Due to massive procurement of materials on these projects, significant amount of waste is generated. This waste has substantial impacts not only on project cost but also on the environment.  So waste measurement and its source of generation would be the first initiative to control these wastes. In this regard, around sixty (60) papers were reviewed to determine the most wasteful materials based on past papers literature. Further, to determine the barriers in waste management, frequency analysis was performed. Based on these analysis it was found that design changes, procurement problems, theft and vandalism, etc. are major sources of waste generation. Further, out of twenty five (25) materials, most wasteful were wood, steel, bricks, concrete, tiles, sand, cement and ceiling boards. Moreover, major barriers in waste management are inappropriate regulations, financial issues, lack of standards and lack of awareness programs. So to promote suitable construction, waste management practices must be followed, in this regard more studies are required to focus in developing a comprehensive waste management framework

n point dct vlsi architecture for emerging hevc standard

This work presents a flexible VLSI architecture to compute the -point DCT. Since HEVC supports different block sizes for the computation of the DCT, that is, up to , the design of a flexible architecture to support them helps reducing the area overhead of hardware implementations. The hardware proposed in this work is partially folded to save area and to get speed for large video sequences sizes. The proposed architecture relies on the decomposition of the DCT matrices into sparse submatrices in order to reduce the multiplications. Finally, multiplications are completely eliminated using the lifting scheme. The proposed architecture sustains real-time processing of 1080P HD video codec running at 150 MHz

Prevalence of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease among Diabetic Patients at Sharif Medical City Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan

Background: Diabetes mellitus has been linked to various gastrointestinal motility disorders, including gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).This study aimed to determine the proportion of GERD in patients with diabetes mellitus.Method: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the medical outpatient department of Sharif Medical City Hospital, Lahore, from October to December, 2020. Patients previously diagnosed with type II diabetes were included using non-probability consecutive sampling, and the GERDQ questionnaire was used to determine the frequency. IBM SPSS statistics version 23 was used for the analysis of data.Results: Of the 273 participants, 183 (67.0%) were male and the mean age was 51.13±12.8 years. The mean duration of diabetes was 6.97±4.76 years and oral hypoglycemic agents were used by 133 (48.7%) participants. Overall, 133 (48.7%) of the participants had GERD with a mean GERDQ score of 10.8(±1.4).Conclusion: Almost half (48.7%) of the participants have GERD; the most common symptom is regurgitation of stomach contents. Awareness should be raised, and early screening should be done to prevent long-term complications.

Vulnerability to Climate Change and Socio-Economic Factors: A Comparison of Selected Districts of Punjab

This study analyzes ten districts of the province Punjab of Pakistan to investigate and compare the vulnerability of selected districts. Total Three sub-groups (socio-economic variables, adaptive capacity, bio-physical variables) are generated by using the data from Pakistan Social & Living Standard Measurement Survey (PSLM) and Pakistan Meteorological Department of the years 2014-15, to calculate total vulnerability. Using primary variables at the district level, this study determines each district’s rural and urban areas' total vulnerability score. The results show that few districts, e.g., Rawalpindi has 0.74 total vulnerability score out of 1, are highly vulnerable compared to other districts despite having a better socio-economic situation. On the other hand, few districts, like Multan, have a low vulnerability to climate change and socio-economic factors. Keywords: CO2, socio-economic, bio-physical, environment, Vulnerability. JEL Classification Codes: Q3, O13, P28

Torsion of ovarian dysgerminoma in a child: role of computed tomography.

Dysgerminomas are malignant germ cell tumors of the ovary that most commonly occur in the adolescent population. Ovarian dysgerminomapresenting with complications like torsion is a rare entity in the pediatric age group. Cross-sectional imaging plays a crucial role in diagnosis, tumor staging before surgical resection, and for planning adjuvant chemotherapy. We report a case of a nine-year-old female who presented to the emergency room (ER) with abdominal distention and abdominal pain. Computed tomography scan revealed a large right-sided pelvic mass with areas of low attenuation, speckled calcification, peritumoral free fluid, and a twisted vascular pedicle that was likely originating from the left adnexa. The right ovary was normal in appearance. Suspicion of a left-sided ovarian tumor with torsion was raised, which was later confirmed on surgery and histopathology of the resected specimen

Transformational Leadership and Corporate Reputation: Mediation Effects of Employer Branding

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of transformational leadership and corporate reputation on employer branding by testing a hypothesized model. This study employed a quantitative online survey technique. The researcher distributed 350 questionnaires through purposive sampling out of which 132 questionnaires received back for data analysis. Regression analysis was selected to analyze the collected data to test the hypothesis developed from past literature. Results validate that transformational leadership has an impact on employer branding and employer branding has a direct impact on corporate reputation but correlation amid transformational leadership and business reputation goes insignificant when added employer branding showing full mediation of this variable. The present study backs the writings of business reputation that can be developed through transformational leadership and employer branding. The findings would be helpful for organizational leaders in developing strategies to create a corporate reputation

Effects of Gasoline Price Changes On Short Term Market Behavior Of Energy And Non-Energy Sector: Evidence From Saudi Arabia

The gasoline prices are highly regulated in Saudi Arabia however due to economic reforms government has decided to increase the gasoline and other energy prices in different times in the coming five years. This study aims to analyze the impact of domestic gasoline price change on stock market performance of energy and non-energy sectors of the Saudi Arabia. The study has developed hypothesis and used event study methodology. Findings show that in short run increase in gasoline prices has negative effects on market performance of non-energy sector for which gasoline is a major unit in cost of production. The study results are more true for such non energy sector who could easily shift its increased cost to customers by increasing its product prices e.g. transportation sector. However, the study could not find any such evidences in the energy sector. These findings are of great implication to researchers, government regulatory bodies, and other stakeholders of stock markets. Keywords: Economic Reforms, Gasoline Prices, Event study methodology, Tadawul Stock Exchange JEL Classifications: E3, G1, P11, O13, L7

A Comparative Analysis of DNN and Conventional Signal Detection Techniques in SISO and MIMO Communication Systems

This paper investigates the performance of deep neural network (DNN)-based signal detection in multiple input, multiple output (MIMO), communication systems. MIMO technology plays a critical role in achieving high data rates and improved capacity in modern wireless communication standards like 5G. However, signal detection in MIMO systems presents significant challenges due to channel complexities. This study conducts a comparative analysis of signal detection techniques within both the single input, single output (SISO), and MIMO frameworks. The analysis focuses on the entire transmission chain, encompassing transmitters, channels, and receivers. The effectiveness of three traditional methods—maximum likelihood detection (MLD), minimum mean square error (MMSE), and zero-forcing (ZF)—is meticulously evaluated alongside a novel DNN-based approach. The proposed study presents a novel DNN-based signal detection model. While this model demonstrates superior computational efficiency and symbol error rate (SER) performance compared to more conventional techniques like MLD, MMSE, and ZF in the context of a SISO system, MIMO systems face some challenges in outperforming the conventional techniques specifically in terms of computation times. This complexity of MIMO systems presents challenges that the current DNN design has yet to fully address, indicating the need for further developments in wireless communication technology. The observed performance difference between SISO and MIMO systems underscores the need for further research on the adaptability and limitations of DNN architectures in MIMO contexts. These findings pave the way for future explorations of advanced neural network architectures and algorithms specifically designed for MIMO signal-processing tasks. By overcoming the performance gap observed in this work, such advancements hold significant promise for enhancing the effectiveness of DNN-based signal detection in MIMO communication systems

Digital Twin Concept, Method and Technical Framework for Smart Meters

Smart meters connect smart grid electricity suppliers and users. Smart meters have become a research hotspot as smart grid applications like demand response, power theft prevention, power quality monitoring, peak valley time of use prices, and peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading have grown. But, as the carriers of these functions, smart meters have technical problems such as limited computing resources, difficulty in upgrading, and high costs, which to some extent restrict the further development of smart grid applications. To address these issues, this study offers a container-based digital twin (CDT) approach for smart meters, which not only increases the user-facing computing resources of smart meters but also simplifies and lowers the overall cost and technical complexity of meter changes. In order to further validate the effectiveness of this method in real-time applications on the smart grid user side, this article tested and analyzed the communication performance of the digital twin system in three areas: remote application services, peer-to-peer transactions, and real-time user request services. The experimental results show that the CDT method proposed in this paper meets the basic requirements of smart grid user-side applications for real-time communication. The container is deployed in the cloud, and the average time required to complete 100 P2P communications using our smart meter structure is less than 2.4 seconds, while the average time required for existing smart meter structures to complete the same number of P2P communications is 208 seconds. Finally, applications, the future development direction of the digital twin method, and technology architecture are projected