Forecasting demand: development of a fuzzy growth adjusted holt-winters approach

Irrespective of the type of items manufactured by an industry, environment is now becoming progressively more and more competitive than the past few decades. To sustain in this severe competition, companies have no choice but to manage their operations optimally and in this respect the importance of more accurate demand prediction cannot be exaggerated. This research presents a forecasting approach tailoring the multiplicative Holt-Winters method with growth adjustment through incorporation of fuzzy logic. The growth parameter of the time series values is adjusted with the conventional Holt-Winters method and tested for predicting the real-life demand of transformer tank experienced by a local company. The result obtained by applying the new approach shows a significant improvement in the accuracy of the forecasted demand and sheds light on further enhancement of the proposed method by optimizing other time series parameters through fuzzy logic application for possible application in prediction of demand having trend, seasonal and cyclical changes

Occupational stress and addiction: Possible neurobiological elucidation of medical waste related individuals

Multiple factors contribute to the tendency to develop drug addictions, including social or psychological stressors. Most studies examining causes of and treatments for drug addiction have been conducted in Western developed nations. Here we used phenomenological research approach to explore the neurobiological explanation of drug addiction and to investigate attitudes towards drug use amongst individuals working with medical waste. Data were collected in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, using a variety of techniques based on formal representative sampling for fixed populations and adaptive sampling for roaming populations. We found that over half of participants interviewed reported using illicit substances to cope with occupational stress. Self-reported disease symptoms related to stress were reported by most of the respondents. Working with horrifying waste contributes to increased stress among the participants. These results indicate that in the case of these workers, workplace stressors along with cultural and socio-economic context uniquely contribute to, and exacerbate, tendencies toward drug addiction

Interplay between Coulomb Blockade and Resonant Tunneling studied by the Keldysh Green's Function Method

A theory of tunneling through a quantum dot is presented which enables us to study combined effects of Coulomb blockade and discrete energy spectrum of the dot. The expression of tunneling current is derived from the Keldysh Green's function method, and is shown to automatically satisfy the conservation at DC current of both junctions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures(mail if you need), use revtex.sty, error corrected, changed titl

Investigation of Medicinal Plants at Katakhali Pouroshova of Rajshahi District, Bangladesh and their Conservation Management

Abstract Investigation of medicinal plants at Katakhali Pouroshova of Rajshahi district and their conservation management was carried out from December 2013 to July 2015. A total of twenty six field trips were made for documentation. During the field interview, the information was noted in the documentation data sheet. All the information regarding plant species, biological forms, habitat, local names and uses was documented. Medicinal information was obtained through informal interviews following semi-structured from knowledgeable person's particularly local Kabiraj/Herbalists and elderly people. One hundred and forty three (143) medicinal plants have been documented with their uses for the cure of more than 109 diseases, and some of these are abscess, asthma, abortion, cough, cold, chicken pox, constipation, dysentery, diarrhea, diabetes, eczema, fever, and fracture of bone, headache, heart disease, itches, jaundice, menstrual disease, paralysis, piles, skin diseases, snake-bite, sex problems, toothache, vomiting, worm, wound and others. In majority cases, leaves of the medicinal plants were found leading in terms of their use followed by whole plant, stem, bark, fruits, rhizome, seed, root and flower. For each species scientific name, family, medicinal use and part(s) used are provided

Temperature dependence of the resistivity in the double-exchange model

The resistivity around the ferromagnetic transition temperature in the double exchange model is studied by the Schwinger boson approach. The spatial spin correlation responsible for scattering of conduction electrons are taken into account by adopting the memory function formalism. Although the correlation shows a peak lower than the transition temperature, the resistivity in the ferromagnetic state monotonically increases with increasing temperature due to a variation of the electronic state of the conduction electron. In the paramagnetic state, the resistivity is dominated by the short range correlation of scattering and is almost independent of the temperature. It is attributed to a cancellation between the nearest-neighbor spin correlation, the fermion bandwidth, and the fermion kinetic energy. This result implies the importance of the temperature dependence of the electronic states of the conduction electron as well as the localized spin states in both ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, 4 PostScript figures, To appear in Phys. Rev.

Antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on anisotropic triangular lattice in the presence of magnetic field

We use Schwinger boson mean field theory to study the antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 Heisenberg model on an anisotropic triangular lattice in the presence of a uniform external magnetic field. We calculate the field dependence of the spin incommensurability in the ordered spin spiral phase, and compare the results to the recent experiments in Cs$_{2}$CuCl$_{4}$ by Coldea et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 1335 (2001)).Comment: 4 pages with 4 figures include

Exploring post-COVID-19 health effects and features with advanced machine learning techniques

COVID-19 is an infectious respiratory disease that has had a significant impact, resulting in a range of outcomes including recovery, continued health issues, and the loss of life. Among those who have recovered, many experience negative health effects, particularly influenced by demographic factors such as gender and age, as well as physiological and neurological factors like sleep patterns, emotional states, anxiety, and memory. This research aims to explore various health factors affecting different demographic profiles and establish significant correlations among physiological and neurological factors in the post-COVID-19 state. To achieve these objectives, we have identified the post-COVID-19 health factors and based on these factors survey data were collected from COVID-recovered patients in Bangladesh. Employing diverse machine learning algorithms, we utilised the best prediction model for post-COVID-19 factors. Initial findings from statistical analysis were further validated using Chi-square to demonstrate significant relationships among these elements. Additionally, Pearson’s coefficient was utilized to indicate positive or negative associations among various physiological and neurological factors in the post-COVID-19 state. Finally, we determined the most effective machine learning model and identified key features using analytical methods such as the Gini Index, Feature Coefficients, Information Gain, and SHAP Value Assessment. And found that the Decision Tree model excelled in identifying crucial features while predicting the extent of post-COVID-19 impact

Effects of sucrose and glycerol on vitrification of buffalo oocytes

Background: Vitrification, ultra-rapid cooling can be used to cryopreserve oocytes for embryo technology. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of sucrose and glycerol on vitrification of buffalo oocytes.Methods: Cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were aspirated from slaughtered buffalo ovaries. In experiment 1, the vitrification solution was supplemented with either 0, 0.25 or 0.5 M sucrose. In experiment 2, the vitrification solution was supplemented with either 0, 5 or 10 M glycerol together with 0.5 M sucrose. COCs were exposed into equilibration solution and vitrification solution for 5 min and 1 min, respectively. Then the oocytes were submerged into liquid nitrogen for 10 min using cryotops. The oocytes were thawed, diluted and washed in washing solution. Vitrified oocytes were cultured for maturation at 38.5°C for 24 hrs at 5% CO2. Then oocytes were fixed in acetic acid and ethanol and stained with aceto-orcein to examine the meiotic stages.Results: In experiment 1, a significantly higher number of morphologically normal oocytes and cumulus cell expansion were found in 0.5 M sucrose group than others. In addition, a proportion of oocytes resumed meiosis but none of those developed to the metaphase II (MII) stage. In experiment 2, a significantly higher number of oocytes showed cumulus cell expansion as well as higher morphologically normal oocytes in 5 M and 10 M glycerol than in 0 M (control) group. In addition, 18% oocytes matured to MII stage in 5 M glycerol group.Conclusions: Buffalo oocytes can be vitrified with a combination of sucrose and glycerol to maintain its developmental potential