Monitoring urban growth and land use land cover change in Al Ain, UAE using remote sensing and GIS techniques

Urbanization and industrialization cause a serious land degradation problem, including an increased pressure on natural resources such as deforestation, rise in temperature and management of water resources. The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects of urbanization are widely acknowledged. Increase of impervious surface is a surrogate measure of urbanization and their effects on local hydrology is well reported in literature. This study investigates the spatial-temporal dynamics of land use and land cover changes in Al Ain, UAE, from 2006 to 2016. The Landsat images of two different periods, i.e., Landsat ETM of 2006 and Landsat 8 for 2016 were acquired from earth explorer site. Semi-supervised known as the hybrid classification method was used for image classification. The change detection was carried out through post-classification techniques. The study area was categorized into five major classes. These are agriculture, gardens, urban, sandy areas and mixed urban/sandy areas. It was observed that agricultural and urban land increases from 42,560 ha to 45,950 ha (8%) and 8150 ha to 9105 ha (12%), respectively. Consequently, the natural sandy area was reduced. It was also found that the urban area was expanded dramatically in the west and southwest directions. The outcomes of this study would help concerning authorities for a sustainable land and water resources management in the Al Ain region

Informatics, Logistics and Governance in Water Treatment Processes

Increasing demands of water for diverse uses of domestic, agricultural, and industrial consumption, both in quantity and quality, pose tremendous pressure on the need of well articulated management approaches. Such approaches are expected to address several challenges such as limited supplies, deteriorated quality of available and produced water, conflicting interests of public stakeholders and groups, adverse environmental and ecological impacts, climate changes, etc. Large number of these approaches exist and still evolve and develop for different purpose including data management, operation and governance, conjunctive management of water and energy, asset management, and intelligent systems in water treatment process

Ground defected planar super-wideband antenna: a suitable transceiver for short distance wireless communication

A planar microstrip patch super-wideband antenna is presented for short distance wireless communication applications. The antenna is comprised of a simple patch and a ground plane and etched on two sides of a 1.6 mm-thick standard FR4 substrate material with a relative permittivity of 4.5 and loss tangent (0.02). The proposed antenna possesses a compact size of 29 × 20.5 mm2 with an electrical dimension of 0.25 λ × 0.18 λ. To enhance the operating bandwidth, the ground plane is modified by adding seven small rectangular slots on its upper side. Through numerical studies, it is found that insertion of the slots enhances the coupling between the patch and ground plane resulting in achievement of a super-wide operating band. From the measurements, it is observed that the fabricated prototype antenna has a bandwidth from 2.63 to more than 18 GHz, a symmetric omnidirectional radiation characteristic and the maximum peak gain of 5.85 dBi which makes it a suitable transceiver for short distance communication applications

Potable water saving by reusing greywater in the Al Ain City

Fresh water scarcity in arid regions is well acknowledged. Sources of urban water in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are groundwater, desalinated water and treated wastewater. In the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (EAD), about three-quarters of the costly desalinated water supplies are used for irrigation to amenity plantations and for home gardening (Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, 2009). The per capita water consumption in EAD ranges between 170 and 200 lpcd in flats and between 270 and 1,760 lpcd in villas. The amenity (park, gardens and recreation areas) irrigation has been increasing in the region with the rapid growth of its urban development. Currently about 98% of wastewater generated from households in EAD is centrally collected through an efficient sewerage networks and then treated for reuse in the irrigation to roadside plantations and public places. In current practice, treated sewage effluent is not conveyed for domestic gardening and toilet flushing purposes. This is because of necessity of dual reticulation system that will increase the marginal cost of water supply significantly. Greywater collected from shower, ablution, washing machine, bathroom sink and other household activities (except from toilet and kitchen source) are generally less contaminated than that of municipal wastewater and can be reused for non-potable consumptions (Mourad et al., 2011; Friedler and Hadari, 2006)

Minimum toe clearance events in divided attention treadmill walking in older and young adults: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Falls in older adults during walking frequently occur while performing a concurrent task; that is, dividing attention to respond to other demands in the environment. A particularly hazardous fall-related event is tripping due to toe-ground contact during the swing phase of the gait cycle. The aim of this experiment was to determine the effects of divided attention on tripping risk by investigating the gait cycle event Minimum Toe Clearance (MTC). METHODS: Fifteen older adults (mean 73.1 years) and 15 young controls (mean 26.1 years) performed three walking tasks on motorized treadmill: (i) at preferred walking speed (preferred walking), (ii) while carrying a glass of water at a comfortable walking speed (dual task walking), and (iii) speed-matched control walking without the glass of water (control walking). Position-time coordinates of the toe were acquired using a 3 dimensional motion capture system (Optotrak NDI, Canada). When MTC was present, toe height at MTC (MTC_Height) and MTC timing (MTC_Time) were calculated. The proportion of non-MTC gait cycles was computed and for non-MTC gait cycles, toe-height was extracted at the mean MTC_Time. RESULTS: Both groups maintained mean MTC_Height across all three conditions. Despite greater MTC_Height SD in preferred gait, the older group reduced their variability to match the young group in dual task walking. Compared to preferred speed walking, both groups attained MTC earlier in dual task and control conditions. The older group’s MTC_Time SD was greater across all conditions; in dual task walking, however, they approximated the young group’s SD. Non-MTC gait cycles were more frequent in the older group across walking conditions (for example, in preferred walking: young – 2.9 %; older - 18.7 %). CONCLUSIONS: In response to increased attention demands older adults preserve MTC_Height but exercise greater control of the critical MTC event by reducing variability in both MTC_Height and MTC_Time. A further adaptive locomotor control strategy to reduce the likelihood of toe-ground contacts is to attain higher mid-swing clearance by eliminating the MTC event, i.e. demonstrating non-MTC gaits cycles

Frequency and pattern of gynecological problems of adolescent girls attending outpatient department, department of obstetrics and gynecology, Bangabandhu Sheik Mujib Medical University, Bangladesh

Background: Adolescent is a stage of development tangent, like a bridge of childhood and adulthood. It is the healthiest age group of our society which is almost 20% of our total population. World health organization (WHO) defines adolescents are in the 10-19 year in age group. One of the major physiological changes that take place in adolescent girls is the onset of menarche, which is often associated with problems of irregular menstruation, excessive bleeding and dysmenorrhea.Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was carried out in 668 female adolescent aged 10-19 years irrespective of their marital status visiting the OPD of obstetrics and gynecology department of BSMMU. All data was analyzed using SPSS program version 22.0.Results: Results were expressed in frequencies or percentages. Of the 668 adolescent girls, 418 (62.6%) had different type of menstrual disorder. Of these 418 cases about 127 (30.38%) of them were a case of puberty menorrhagia, 109 (26.07%) cases were oligomenorrhoea and 91 (21.77%) were amenorrhea. Other presentations were pre-vaginal discharge, vulval itching, lower abdominal pain, dysuria, feeling lump in lower abdomen, mastalgia, feeling lump in the breast, discharge from breast, acne, hirsutism.Conclusions: This study shows more than half of adolescent girls are having menstrual disorder. Adolescent gynecology needs increased awareness and greater attention to improve the quality of their life. Setting up a separate adolescent clinic is necessary for efficient management of adolescent problem

An experimental study of greywater irrigated green roof systems in an arid climate

Green roofs provide multi-functional benefits to the built environment. They minimize urban heat island effects, enhance biodiversity, reduce carbon footprints, provide hydraulic benefits to urban runoff, and improve overall environmental sustainability. However, their application is limited or rare in arid climates. On the other hand, greywater is becoming a popular alternative water resource in water-scarce regions. A greywater-fed green roof system was developed and studied in the city of Al Ain, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The effluent (treated greywater) from the green roofs can be used to irrigate amenity plantations. Two intensive and two extensive green roof prototypes were constructed, planted with reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea L.), and irrigated with greywater. The greywater influents and the green roof effluents were monitored for changes in greywater quality. The study showed that the intensive system performed well, which is attributable to the greater depth of soil media. Treated greywater effluent from the green roofs met the local standards for recycled wastewater-based irrigation for a number of parameters (pH, electrical conductivity, salinity, and total dissolved solids), but exceeded the maximum allowable limits for turbidity, COD, and sodium ions (Na+), which may be because of the short retention time of the experiment. Both the intensive and the extensive systems were inefficient in reducing the total bacterial count of the greywater

Support vector machines for young and older gait classification using inertial sensor kinematics at minimum toe clearance

Paper originally presented at: 10th EAI International Conference on Body Area Networks (BODYNETS 2015) Sydney, Australia, 28-30 Sept, 201

Analysis of Episodes of Care in Medicare Beneficiaries Newly Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease

OBJECTIVES: To study transitions between healthcare settings and quantify the cost burdens associated with different combinations of transitions during a 6-month period before initial Alzheimer’s disease (AD) diagnosis so as to investigate how using an episode-of-care approach to payment for specific disease states might apply in AD. DESIGN: A retrospective observational cohort study. SETTING: United States. PARTICIPANTS: A random sample of 8,995 individuals aged 65 to 100 with a diagnosis of AD (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification code 331.0) were identified from the Medicare database between January 1, 2011, and June 30, 2014. This analysis identified individuals with AD diagnosed in inpatient (18%), skilled nursing facility (SNF) (1%), hospice (4%), and home and outpatient (77%) settings and analyzed episodes that began in the index setting (defined as the care setting in which the individual was first diagnosed with AD). MEASUREMENTS: Study outcomes included number of transitions between settings, primary discharge diagnoses, and total all-cause healthcare costs during the 6 months after the AD diagnosis. RESULTS: The average numbers of transitions between care settings were 2.8 originating from an inpatient setting, 2.4 from a SNF, 0.3 from a hospice setting and 0.7 from a home or outpatient setting during 6 months post-AD diagnosis. The overall cost burden during the 6 months after AD diagnosis (including costs incurred at the index setting) was high for individuals diagnosed in a nonambulatory setting (mean $41,468). Individuals diagnosed in an ambulatory setting incurred only$12,597 in costs during the same period. CONCLUSION: Episodes of care can be defined and studied in individuals with AD. An episode-of-care approach to payment could encourage providers to use the continuum of care needed for quality medical management in AD more efficiently