Developing a person guidance module for hospital robots

This dissertation describes the design and implementation of the Person Guidance Module (PGM) that enables the IWARD (Intelligent Robot Swarm for attendance, Recognition, Cleaning and delivery) base robot to offer route guidance service to the patients or visitors inside the hospital arena. One of the common problems encountered in huge hospital buildings today is foreigners not being able to find their way around in the hospital. Although there are a variety of guide robots currently existing on the market and offering a wide range of guidance and related activities, they do not fit into the modular concept of the IWARD project. The PGM features a robust and foolproof non-hierarchical sensor fusion approach of an active RFID, stereovision and cricket mote sensor for guiding a patient to the X-ray room, or a visitor to a patient’s ward in every possible scenario in a complex, dynamic and crowded hospital environment. Moreover, the speed of the robot can be adjusted automatically according to the pace of the follower for physical comfort using this system. Furthermore, the module performs these tasks in any unconstructed environment solely from a robot’s onboard perceptual resources in order to limit the hardware installation costs and therefore the indoor setting support. Similar comprehensive solution in one single platform has remained elusive in existing literature. The finished module can be connected to any IWARD base robot using quick-change mechanical connections and standard electrical connections. The PGM module box is equipped with a Gumstix embedded computer for all module computing which is powered up automatically once the module box is inserted into the robot. In line with the general software architecture of the IWARD project, all software modules are developed as Orca2 components and cross-complied for Gumstix’s XScale processor. To support standardized communication between different software components, Internet Communications Engine (Ice) has been used as middleware. Additionally, plug-and-play capabilities have been developed and incorporated so that swarm system is aware at all times of which robot is equipped with PGM. Finally, in several field trials in hospital environments, the person guidance module has shown its suitability for a challenging real-world application as well as the necessary user acceptance

PREDICTING THE FLOW PROPERTIES OF POLYAMIDE NANOCOMPOSITES BY USING VINOGRADOV-MALKIN MODEL

This article reports the prediction of the theoretical flow curves of polyamide composites by using Vinogradov-Malkinmodel. Determination of the melt flow index of polymeric materials is the first step to study viscosity-shear raterelationship. The viscosity of the composites at different temperatures were calculated by using the Williams, Landel'a and Ferry (WLF) equation. Other important rheological characteristics were calculated by using appropriate equations. One point method is employed to correlate the changes in viscosity with temperatures. As expected, it is found that incorporation of nanoclay to polyamide 6 (PA6) significantly decreases the Melt Flow Rate of the composites and hence, increases density. Addition of stabilizer further increases density of the PA6/nanoclay composites. The simulations of viscosity curves for PA6 composites were carried out at measurement temperature, 240°C and in the range of 180°C - 350°C with shear rate of 10-1– 1031/s. It is found that addition of nanoclay and stabilizer to PA6 decreases viscosity of the composites in the order of PA6/OMMT > PA6 > PA6/I1098 > PA6/OMMT/I1098 > PA6/MMT/I1098 > PA6/MMT. At higher shear rates, viscosity decreases in the same sequence as low shear rates. At further higher shear rates (> 1000 1/s), fillerparticles are arranged in the flow direction thus exerting no significant effect on viscosity of composites both with and without the stabilizer. During injection moulding in the shear rate ranging from 101 – 104 1/s at 240°C temperature, it is evident that viscosity decreases drastically with increase in shear rat

Pattern of liver cysts with their surgical management

Background: Liver cysts are seen in up to 5% of the population. 15-16% of such cysts are symptomatic. Symptomatic cysts are found more commonly in women who are over 50 years of age.Simple hepatic cysts are believed to be congenital in origin.Methods: The observational study was conducted in the department of hepatobiliary department of surgery of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Total of 80 cases were randomly selected for the study. Clinical examination and evaluation were done from July 2013 to June 2014. Proper consent was taken from the respective concern. Statistical analysis of the results was obtained by using window-based computer software statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS-22).Results: Most of the respondents were female (65%). The male-female ratio was 1:1.9. The mean age was 46.4 (±SD 10.191) years, ranging from 13-76 years. There were 69 non-parasitic diseases and 11 parasitic diseases. Among them 30 patients were diagnosed as liver cyst incidentally and they required no treatment. Liver function was abnormal in 70% patients. It was found from ultrasonography (USG) and computed tomography (CT) scan of abdomen that right lobe involvement (65% and 28% respectively) is more common than left lobe (21.3% and 12% respectively). The most common complication following surgical interventions was haemorrhage (32.4%).Conclusions: Females are affected most and M:F=1:1.9, usual affected age groups are of 5th decade and common in rural area. Imaging is the best modality for diagnosis of cystic lesions but serological investigations are also helpful

Examining Bangladesh's responses to COVID-19 in light of Vietnam : lessons learned

This review aimed to examine the extent of Bangladesh's COVID-19 preparedness and control measures up to 20 January 2021, and to draw some lessons for informing the current and future pandemic responses in Bangladesh in light of Vietnam's responses, which had successfully controlled the pandemic. We performed a content analysis of data to identify similarities and critical discrepancies in epidemiological features and COVID-19 responses between the two countries. Findings indicated that Vietnam reported lower COVID-19 incidence (15 cases per million) and death rate (0.4 cases per million) than Bangladesh, with 3,129 cases per million and a death rate of 46 cases per million. Vietnam reported only 35 deaths, with 22 older individuals (>60 years) compared with 7,950 deaths in Bangladesh, with the highest death rate in older people (45%). An integrated approach combined with widespread contact tracing, better health investment, vaccine development, and strong political commitment enabled Vietnam to control the disease and mitigate its impacts. In contrast, Bangladesh seemed to adopt inadequate and untimely measures in the same domains, potentially contributing to relatively high COVID-19 infections and death rates. To control COVID-19 or inform responses to future pandemics, Bangladesh and similar countries can learn eight lessons from Vietnam. Such transferable responses could prepare health systems and populations for an appropriate global response to the next potential pandemic

A numerical model to analyze handoff delay and packet loss in PNEMO environment

Wireless networks consist of Mobile Nodes (MNs) which use wireless links to communicate. Usually, they work together to attain a common objective such as environmental monitoring, communication, etc. By nature, the communication among these MNs are not stable as the quality of the wireless links is changed severely. Moreover, the wireless nodes are usually small and therefore resource-constrained. Thus, it is not possible to use algorithms having large processing power or memory footprint. All these factors make the design of mobility management schemes for wireless networks quite a challenge. As a result, it is necessary to test schemes systematically to assess the performance in the expected application scenario. To do so, numerical analysis is a notable process to comprehend the performance of mobility management schemes and the limitation of developing mobility management solutions explicitly for multiinterfaced MR in NEMO networks. This paper proposed a numerical model to analyze handoff performance of Multihoming-based scheme to support Mobility management in Proxy NEMO (MM-PNEMO) environment. After that, it represents a comparative analysis among the standard Network Mobility Basic Support Protocol (NEMO BSP), Proxy NEMO (PNEMO) and MM-PNEMO scheme. The performance metrics estimated for these schemes are mainly handoff delay and packet loss. It has been perceived that, the MM-PNEMO scheme performs better compared to the standard NEMO BSP and PNEMO scheme. © 2018 IEEE

Analysis on Preparation, Application, and Recycling of Activated Carbon to Aid in COVID-19 Protection

Activated carbon (AC) is an extremely porous carbonaceous adsorptive substance which has a rigid carbon matrix with high surface area and broad functional groups. The structure is connected by chemical bonds; arranged irregularly, generating a highly porous arrangement of corners, crevices, claps, and cracks between the carbon layers. Activated carbons are produced high-temperature and chemical activation of waste biomass. The pores in the lattice network of activated carbon permit the removal of impurities from gaseous and liquid medium through adsorption. At present, the COVID-19 disease is the prime concern around the whole world because of its exponential infections and death rate. There is no medicine for this virus, and protection is the only remedy to survive from this contagious disease. Using a face mask is one of the best methods to get rid of COVID-19. The mask combined with activated carbon can be beneficial for adsorbing and disinfecting the virus as it is the versatile adsorbent for the elimination of the organic, inorganic, and pathogenic contaminants

Examining Bangladesh’s responses to COVID-19 in light of Vietnam : lessons learned

This review aimed to examine the extent of Bangladesh’s COVID-19 preparedness and control measures up to 20 January 2021, and to draw some lessons for informing the current and future pandemic responses in Bangladesh in light of Vietnam’s responses, which had successfully controlled the pandemic. We performed a content analysis of data to identify similarities and critical discrepancies in epidemiological features and COVID-19 responses between the two countries. Findings indicated that Vietnam reported lower COVID-19 incidence (15 cases per million) and death rate (0.4 cases per million) than Bangladesh, with 3,129 cases per million and a death rate of 46 cases per million. Vietnam reported only 35 deaths, with 22 older individuals (>60 years) compared with 7,950 deaths in Bangladesh, with the highest death rate in older people (45%). An integrated approach combined with widespread contact tracing, better health investment, vaccine development, and strong political commitment enabled Vietnam to control the disease and mitigate its impacts. In contrast, Bangladesh seemed to adopt inadequate and untimely measures in the same domains, potentially contributing to relatively high COVID-19 infections and death rates. To control COVID-19 or inform responses to future pandemics, Bangladesh and similar countries can learn eight lessons from Vietnam. Such transferable responses could prepare health systems and populations for an appropriate global response to the next potential pandemic

An ingenious multiple communicator concept for next generation smart metering communication system

In this article, we propose and study a self-switching network concept known as an ingenious multiple communicator mechanism which can be applied to energy provider’s smart metering device. We outline reasons why such multiple connections networks are required through real case study scenarios and key components that drive towards such concept. We have gathered actual measurement values for a particular network and identified in what situation this is most suitable and applicable. We have come out with the basic system model for this multiple communicator. We also observed that a less fluctuating and similar pattern of network performance helps to design better network predictive analytics function. Finally numerical examples and analysis of the results are presented