Multiple repair scenario of life cycle cost of RCC girder bridge using Markov chain model

At present, many road authorities in the world face challenges in condition monitoring diagnosis of distress and forecasting deterioration, strengthening and convalescence of aging bridge structures. The accurate prediction of the future condition is crucial for optimizing the maintenance activities. It is very tough to predict the actual performance scenario or actual in–situ structures without carrying out inspection. Limited availability of detailed inspection data is considered as one of the major drawbacks in developing deterioration models. In State Based Markov deterioration (SNMD) modelling, the main job is to estimate transition probability matrixes (TPMs). In this paper, Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is used to estimate TPMs. In Markov Chain Model, future conditions depend on only present bridge inspection data. Multiple repair options are adopted in order to optimize life cycle cost. Repairs are needed when the critical chloride concentration exceeds 0.2. Three distinct types of cost corresponding to each repair option is considered. The objective of this paper is to minimize the life cycle cost considering appropriate repair timings of mixed repair methods. Variation of life cycle cost of five different concretes (stronger to weaker) using three different repair option is shown in this paper. For specific normalized condition of concrete’s failure probability (0.3) and specific type of concrete, variation of life cycle cost using multiple repair options is also shown in this paper

Knowledge and attitude of key community members towards tuberculosis: mixed method study from BRAC TB control areas in Bangladesh

This article was published in BMC Public Health [© 2015 BioMed Central Ltd.] and the definite version is available at: http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-015-1390-5Background: Bangladesh National Tuberculosis (TB) Control Programme adopted a number of strategies to facilitate TB diagnosis and treatment. 'Advocacy, Communication and Social Mobilization' (ACSM) was one of the key strategies implemented by BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, a non-governmental development organization) TB control program. The purpose of this study is to assess the knowledge and attitudes of the key community members (KCMs) participated in ACSM in BRAC TB control areas. Methods: This study combined quantitative and qualitative methods using a mixed method approach. KCMs in three districts with low TB case detection rates were targeted to assess the ACSM program. The quantitative survey using a multi-stage random-sampling strategy was conducted among 432 participants. The qualitative study included in-depth interviews (IDIs) of a sub sample of 48 respondents. For quantitative analysis, descriptive statistics were reported using frequencies, percentages, and Chi square tests, while thematic analysis was used for qualitative part. Results: Most (99%) of the participants had heard about TB, and almost all knew that TB is a contagious yet curable disease. More than half (53%) of the KCMs had good knowledge regarding TB, but BRAC workers were found to be more knowledgeable compared to other KCMs. However, considerable knowledge gaps were observed among BRAC community health workers. Qualitative results revealed that the majority of the KCMs were aware about the signs, symptoms and transmission pathways of TB and believed that smoking and addiction were the prime causes of transmission of TB. The knowledge about child TB was poor even among BRAC health workers. Stigma associated with TB was not uncommon. Almost all respondents expressed that young girls diagnosed with TB. Conclusions: This study finding has revealed varying levels of knowledge and mixed attitudes about TB among the KCMs. It also provides insight on the poor knowledge regarding child TB and indicate that despite the significant success of the TB program stigma is yet prevalent in the community. Future ACSM activities should engage community members against stigma and promote child TB related information for further improvement of BRAC TB Control Programme

A Comparative Study on the Properties of Natural, Synthetic and Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete

The use of fibers in concrete at relatively low volume fraction has been gaining rising popularity among researchers for the recent years due to its availability, ability to enhance overall performance and cost effectiveness. Fibers are mainly classified according to their origin. Numerous researches have been carried out with natural and artificial fibers separately to elucidate its effect on the various parameters of concrete. However, a little finding is available about the comparative study among these three distinct types of fibers affecting concrete properties. In this study coconut coir, nylon thread and low-cost galvanized iron wire have been selected as natural, synthetic and steel fibers respectively. Coconut coir and nylon thread were mixed at three different percentage of 1.5%, 2.5% and 3.5% respectively by weight of cement. Steel fibre contents 1.5%, 2.5% and 3.5% respectively by weight of concrete. The results were obtained through an experimental investigation that shows the influence of natural, synthetic and steel fibers on rheological and mechanical properties of concrete. Optimum fibre content was 2.5% where steel fibre shows a maximum 17% and 30% rise in compressive and flexure strength respectively. On the other hand, fibres play a great role with its combining effect on the post cracking ductility and energy absorption of concrete

Qualitative analysis on watermarking algorithm for large resolution camera phone image

The Digital Water Marking (DWM) algorithm is used to serve security of image, audio and video data. Now days, it has been being used to keep the privacy and resist the intruders and piracy. Our mobile phone is a very important personal material for daily choir. We keep personal data and can pick photo and store it in our cell memory. Sometimes important personal photos could be copied or taken by others via blue tooth. To resist such kind of intruding it’s important to have a security system in those mobile phones. Beside that the robustness and strong security are also needed by using easy techniques. The aim of this paper is to analyze on a Robust Watermark Technique (RWT) which can be easier; more secured and can be embedded by mobile phone itself. It will have invisible water mark and any size will be easily embedded by the software

A novel HGBBDSA-CTI approach for subcarrier allocation in heterogeneous network

In recent times, Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) achieves the capacity and coverage for indoors through the deployment of small cells i.e. femtocells (HeNodeBs). These HeNodeBs are plug-and-play Customer Premises Equipment’s which are associated with the internet protocol backhaul to macrocell (macro-eNodeB). The random placement of HeNodeBs deployed in co-channel along with macro-eNodeB is causing severe system performance degradation. Thereby, these HeNodeBs are suggested as the ultimate and the most significant cause of interference in Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple-Access based HetNets due to the restricted co-channel deployment. The CTI in such systems can significantly reduce the throughput, and the outages can rise to the unacceptable limit or extremely high levels. These lead to severe system performance degradation in HetNets. This paper presents a novel HGBBDSA-CTI approach capable of strategically allocate the subcarriers and thereby improves the throughput as well as the outage. The enhanced system performance is able to mitigate CTI issues in HetNets. This paper also analyses the time complexity for the proposed HGBBDSA algorithm and also compares it with the Genetic Algorithm-based Dynamic Subcarrier Allocation (DSA), and Particle Swarm Optimization-based DSA as well. The key target of this study is to allocate the unoccupied subcarriers by sharing among the HeNodeBs. The reason is also to enhance the system performance such as throughput of HeNodeB, the average throughput of HeNodeB Users, and outage. The simulation results show that the proposed HGBBDSA-CTI approach enhances the average throughput (92.05 and 74.44%), throughput (30.50 and 74.34%), and the outage rate reduced to 52.9 and 50.76% compare with the existing approaches. The result also indicates that the proposed HGBBDSA approach has less time complexity than the existing approaches

Development of duplex eye contact framework for human-robot inter communication

Funding Information: This work was supported in part by the National Research Foundation of Korea-Grant funded by the Korean Government (Ministry of Science and ICT) under Grant NRF 2020R1A2B5B02002478, in part by the Sejong University through its Faculty Research Program, and in part by the Directorate of Research and Extension (DRE), Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Femtocell network synchronization

Currently, Femtocell technology emerged for cellular wireless networks, which has rapidly engrossed cellular industry. The principle of femtocell to the mobile operators is to reduce cost and improve signal quality in indoor coverage which is also considered a possible path to the fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) goal. Femtocell extends network coverage and delivers high-quality mobile services inside residential and business buildings through broadband network i.e. ADSL. Femtocell access point (FAP) or home base station (HBS) intends to serve small number of users i.e. 4 users and covers about 30 meter square similar to existing WiFi access points. However, femtocell introduces new challenges to the telecom industries in terms of handoff between femto and macrocells, interference management, localization and synchronization. Among all 0 f these challenges, synchronization is considered corner stone for proper working for femtocell. The problematic issue in femtocell synchronization is that all the data and control traffics travel through IP broadband network. The IP broadband network is usually owned and managed by third party and not by the mobile operator, which is complicated the synchronization. Unsynchronized FAPs may cause harm interferences and wrong handover dictions. In this study we investigate and overview the current femtocell synchronization techniques and compare between them. Possible improvements and recommendation for each method is identified. Future research areas and open issues were also discussed

Outage probability analysis of Co-Tier interference in heterogeneous network

In Heterogeneous Network (HetNet), the femtocell (HeNB) has been deployed by the telecommunication industries to provide extensive coverage as well as capacity in an indoor. These HeNBs are Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) which is randomly used in co-channel with macrocell (MeNB) and causes the Co-Tier Interference (CTI) in OFDMA. The effect of CTI in OFDMA systems can lead the system throughput degradation and service disruption. Because of quick direct changing features in Rayleigh channel, it is compulsory to succeed the satisfactory performance. The signal-to-interference noise ratio (SINR) is arbitrary which drives the highest capacity to be an irregular variable. However, this paper derives the expressions of outage probabilities based on the hybrid Genetic Algorithm (GA) with biogeography based dynamic subcarrier allocation (HGBBDSA) algorithm is implemented in reducing the outage probability. The outage probability countenance is expressed for the moment-generating function of the total SINR at the receivers end. The simulation results demonstrate that the HGBBDSA can lessen the outage to 45 % than existing methods

A packet delivery cost analysis of a flow-enabled proxy NEMO scheme in a distributed mobility anchoring environment

DMM (Distributed Mobility Management) is a present elective worldview for creating a mobility management scheme to discourse the centralized issues in present IP-based mobile environments. The main reason is to enable these schemes to adapt to the present increment in the number of mobile operators, as well as mobile information traffic size, just as the pattern in the mobile Internet towards Industry 4.0 in a flat architecture. Until this point, the advancement of schemes dependent on the DMM-based method is still at fundamental phases in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), as well as there is no present standard set up. With the point of taking advantage of utilizing different interfaces all at once, this paper proposes an enhanced Flow-enabled Proxy NEMO scheme in a Distributed Mobility Anchoring (FPNEMO-DMA) environment. Besides, a mathematical approach is advanced to assess the performance of the proposed FPNEMO-DMA scheme and benchmark with the existing Nemo Basic Support Protocol (NBSP) and Proxy NEMO. Index Terms—Distributed mobility anchoring; NBSP; Proxy NEMO; Flow mobility

Estimating Catastrophic Costs due to Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Bangladesh

To eliminate TB from the country by the year 2030, the Bangladesh National Tuberculosis (TB) Program is providing free treatment to the TB patients since 1993. However, the patients are still to make Out-of-their Pocket (OOP) payment, particularly before their enrollment Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS). This places a significant economic burden on poor-households. We, therefore, aimed to estimate the Catastrophic Health Expenditure (CHE) due to TB as well as understand associated difficulties faced by the families when a productive family member age (15–55) suffers from TB. The majority of the OOP expenditures occur before enrolling in. We conducted a cross-sectional study using multistage sampling in the areas of Bangladesh where Building Resources Across Communities (BRAC) provided TB treatment during June 2016. In total, 900 new TB patients, aged 15–55 years, were randomly selected from a list collected from BRAC program. CHE was defined as the OOP payments that exceeded 10% of total consumption expenditure of the family and 40% of total non-food expenditure/capacity-to-pay. Regular and Bayesian simulation techniques with 10,000 replications of re-sampling with replacement were used to examine robustness of the study findings. We also used linear regression and logit model to identify the drivers of OOP payments and CHE, respectively. The average total cost-of-illness per patient was 124 US$, of which 68% was indirect cost. The average CHE was 4.3% of the total consumption and 3.1% of non-food expenditure among the surveyed households. The poorest quintile of the households experienced higher CHE than their richest counterpart, 5% vs. 1%. Multiple regression model showed that the risk of CHE increased among male patients with smear-negative TB and delayed enrolling in the DOTS. Findings suggested that specific groups are more vulnerable to CHE who needs to be brought under innovative safety-net schemes