An Evaluation of the Utility of a Mass-Weighted Frequency Distribution of Sediment for Modeling Aeolian Transport Rates

Predictions made by aeolian transport models often do not match well with measured data. The poor predictive capability of these models remains a fundamental problem in aeolian geomorphology. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the recently proposed mass-weighted frequency distribution (Edwards and Namikas 2015) and the apparent von Kármán parameter proposed by Li et al. (2010) to improve transport rate predictions. The evaluation consists of comparisons of predicted transport rates versus a large dataset of measured field and lab transport rates collected from the literature. The transport rate predictions are made both with and without recalibration of model empirical coefficients. The mass-weighted frequency distribution produces a small but statistically significant degree of improvement in agreement between observed and predicted transport rates. The greatest increase in R2value occurs with the Hsu (1971) model (from 0.485 to 0.564). The disparity in predictions between different models is also reduced significantly. Use of the apparent von Kármán parameter is found to be limited to a particular range of sediment transport rates (Q \u3c 0.028 kgm-1s-1). The apparent von Kármán parameter provides the largest degree of predictive improvement with the Kadib (1965) model

Culture, Structure, and Health: Narratives of Low-income Bangladeshi Migrant Workers from the United Arab Emirates

© 2020, © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Increasingly, health scholars are paying attention to the health experiences of immigrant communities, particularly in the backdrop of the global flows of goods, services, and people across borders. In spite of the increasing public health emphasis on health outcomes of immigrants within the Middle Eastern (ME) countries, immigrant communities are often constructed as monoliths and the voices of immigrant communities are traditionally absent from mainstream health policy and program discourses. The health experiences of immigrants, their access to resources, and the health trajectories through the life-course followed by them and their descendants influence the deep-seated patterns of ethnic health disparities documented in the ME. Based on the culture-centered approach, we engaged in in-depth face-to-face interviews, and focus groups discussions with a total of 44 research participants, to understand how low-income Bangladeshi migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who live at the borders of mainstream Arab society, define, construct, and negotiate health issues. Participants articulate in their narratives their nuanced cultural understanding of good health as a complex, holistic practice, the achievement of which is obstructed by barriers such as immigration and insurance structures. Further, they enact their agency in resource impoverished circumstances to protect their mental health and physical well-being through daily strategies and acts of resistance

Labor, Health, and Marginalization: A Culture-Centered Analysis of the Challenges of Male Bangladeshi Migrant Workers in the Middle East

© The Author(s) 2020. Based on the culture-centered approach, we examine the meanings of health and negotiations of health care structures among low socioeconomic status (SES) Bangladeshi male migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). We engage in coconstructive problem definition and strategizing through 44 semistructured in-depth interviews/focus groups about health, migration, and well-being. Our analysis of the participants’ narratives elucidates the intersectionality of health as a lived experience of migrant labor within neoliberal structures focused on labor extraction, highlighting health not as a static or purely epidemiological construct, but as a combination of the physical, mental, spiritual, and socioeconomic material realities within which they are located. These include a recognition of the importance of interconnectedness of physical and mental well-being, drawing upon one’s cultural and familial roles and responsibilities, as well as locating health within structurally exploitative practices. Specifically, the participants articulate the absence of substantive health and labor protections that result in poor health outcomes for them

Bridging Theory to Practice: Utilizing the Culture-Centered Approach (CCA) to Address Gaps in Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Processes

The purpose of this study is to provide recommendations to bridging the theoretical with the practical in developing community-based participatory research (CBPR) health communication projects. As illustrated through a review of several case studies from health campaigns using CBPR, often times the theoretical orientations of CBPR become secondary to its praxis, with unspoken motives and agendas become motivating factors in guiding the initiatives. These motives may come in the form of funding organization priorities, funded grant proposal constraints, and the desire to continue relationships that are fostered in the development of CBPR projects. In response, this essay reintroduces the culture-centered approach (CCA) as an additional metatheoretical lens that can be utilized in linking theory to practice. The use of specific reflexive exercises are recommended to draw out unseen power differentials within project partnerships, calling into question the fundamental objectives guiding the decision-making processes within CBPR projects. This essay aspires to compel and strengthen CBPR health communication in practice to become more authentic to the orientation’s original conceptualization

Marginalization and health: Patients\u27 voices from a Bangladeshi public hospital

This is a co-scripted project that aims to understand the localized constructions of health, agency, and spaces for transformative changes in a community that is primarily based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Research was conducted with a community of patients who frequent the most renowned public hospital of Bangladesh. Being socially marginalized, the voices of this community are primarily absent from the dominant discourses on health, health care, and health policy development. Theoretically and methodologically grounded in the culture-centered approach to health communication, this research focused on foregrounding the voices of the community participants by listening to their narratives and stories of their experiences. The culture-centered approach was chosen as the theoretical lens for this study. Over a period of two months, I conducted 34 in-depth interviews, and wrote field notes and reflexive journal entries. The study revealed a complex construction of health by the community participants, a constant interaction between structural/economic barriers and participant agency, and reflexivity as the core to transformative change. The understanding of these localized participatory discourses assist in this study\u27s contributions to theory, research, and praxis on the localized needs of this marginalized community

Workload Orchestration in Multi-access Edge Computing Using Belief Rule-Based Approach

Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) is a standard network architecture for edge computing, which is proposed to handle enormous computation demands from emerging resource-intensive and latency-sensitive applications and services as well as accommodate Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for ever-growing users through computation offloading. Since the demand of end-users is unknown in a rapidly changing dynamic environment, processing offloaded tasks in a non-optimal server can deteriorate QoS due to high latency and increasing task failures. In order to deal with such a challenge in MEC, a two-stage Belief Rule-Based (BRB) workload orchestrator is proposed to distribute the workload of end-users to optimum computing units, support strict QoS requirements, ensure efficient utilization of computational resources, minimize task failures, and reduce the overall service time. The proposed BRB workload orchestrator decides the optimal execution location for each offloaded task from User Equipment (UE) within the overall MEC architecture based on network conditions, computational resources, and task requirements. EdgeCloudSim simulator is used to conduct comprehensive simulation experiments for evaluating the performance of the proposed BRB orchestrator in contrast to four workload orchestration approaches from the literature with different types of applications. Based on the simulation experiments, the proposed workload orchestrator outperforms state-of-the-art workload orchestration approaches and ensures efficient utilization of computational resources while minimizing task failures and reducing the overall service time.Validerad;2023;Nivå 2;2023-10-31 (joosat);Funder: Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters Degree in GrEen NetworkIng And cLoud computing (GENIAL), (610619-EPP-1-2019-1-FR-EPPKA1-JMD-MOB)CC BY 4.0 License</p

A Belief Rule Based Expert System for Evaluating Technological Innovation Capability of High-Tech Firms Under Uncertainty

Technological innovation capability (TIC) is a complicated and subtle concept which is based on multiple quantitative and qualitative criteria. The cores of a firm’s long-term competitive dominance are defined by technological innovation capability which is the incentive for a firm’s innovation. Various types of uncertainty can be noticed while considering multiple criteria for evaluating TIC. In order to evaluate TIC in a reliable way, a Belief Rule Base (BRB) Expert System can be used to handle both quantitative and qualitative data and their associated uncertainties. In this paper, a RESTful API-based BRB expert system is introduced to evaluate technological innovation capability by taking uncertainties into consideration. This expert system will facilitate firms’ managers to obtain a recapitulation of the TIC evaluation. It will help them to take essential steps to ensure corporate survival and strengthen their weak capabilities continuously to facilitate a competitive advantage. Other users can also use this API to apply BRB for a different domain. However, a comparison between the knowledge-driven approach (BRBES) and several data-driven models has been performed to find out the reliability in evaluating TIC. The result shows that the outcome of BRBES is better than other data-driven approaches.ISBN för värdpublikation: 978-1-7281-0788-2, 978-1-7281-0786-8A belief-rule-based DSS to assess flood risks by using wireless sensor network

Technological Innovation Capability Evaluation of High-Tech Firms Using Conjunctive and Disjunctive Belief Rule-Based Expert System : A Comparative Study

Technological Innovation Capability (TIC) is an intricate concept which defines the essence of a firm’s influence in the long run. It is associated with multiple quantitative and qualitative criteria, and various types of uncertainty can be seen while measuring these criteria. Therefore, to address this issue, a Belief Rule-Based Expert System (BRBES) can be employed with the capability of handling multiple criteria and their associated uncertainties in an integrated framework. In this article, two web-based BRBESs, namely conjunctive BRBES, and disjunctive BRBES, have been developed which are capable of reading data and producing web-based output by taking uncertainties into consideration. Then a comparison has been performed between them to determine the reliability of TIC evaluation. The results show that the performance of conjunctive BRBES is promising than disjunctive BRBES for technological innovation capability evaluation. In addition, a new learning mechanism, namely Belief Rule-Based Adaptive Particle Swarm Optimization (BRBAPSO), has been developed to support learning in BRBES and a comparison between trained conjunctive and trained disjunctive BRBES has also been carried out to evaluate TIC, where trained conjunctive BRBES is found effective than trained disjunctive BRBES.Validerad;2020;Nivå 1;2020-10-29 (alebob)</p

Physical properties of cathode ray tube (CRT) used as aggregate for road pavement application

The amount of electronic waste (e-waste) generated globally has been increasing steadily, including in Malaysia. Utilizing the e-waste as alternative recycled materials can help to conserve natural resources as well as reduce the demand for natural resources. Furthermore, recycled materials can be used in countries with limited aggregate resources. The present study aims to compare the physical properties CRT glass e-waste used as partial replacement for natural aggregates in road pavements. The study method for laboratory work were carried out in accordance with the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) specifications. Three physical tests were carried out to determine the strength of the sample, i.e. Los Angeles abrasion test, specific gravity test and water absorption test. Result shows that CRT glass has a high value of 59.50% for the Los Angeles abrasion test, which exceed the specified requirement of 50%. The value for water absorption test shows that the CRT glass sample was able to achieve the specified requirement. The result for specific gravity test shows that the natural aggregates have a value higher than that of the CRT glass sample. Aggregates with higher specific gravity are generally stronger than those with lower specific gravity. Studies have to be carried out to identify the feasibility of using CRT e-waste glass as an alternative recycled material in the construction of road pavements

Investigation of plant metabolites as potential inhibitors of Acinetobacter baumannii: An In-Silico approach

The gram-negative bacteria Acinetobacter baumannii is responsible for a broad spectrum of dangerous nosocomial infections. Acinetobacter baumannii is easily transmitted into the body via mechanical ventilators, open wounds, and intravascular catheters. Bloodstream infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia caused by A. baumannii have the greatest mortality rates. Due to its multidrug resistance (MDR), broad drug resistance, and pan-drug resistance phenotypes, A. baumannii is now recognized as a particularly challenging pathogen to control. In order to develop novel therapeutics for the existing condition, an in-silico approach was used. Based on the review of the literature, five drug target proteins including OmpA (Peptidoglycan-binding domain), CarO, DcaP, OmpW, and PBP were identified to be vital for the pathogen's survival, infection to the host, and multidrug resistance. A total of 20 potential plant metabolites with antibacterial properties were docked against these proteins. Among them, Corilagin, (+)-Lyoniresinol-3 alpha-O-beta-d-glucopyranoside, Epsilon-Viniferin, and Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) showed superior binding energy compared to the reference drug carbapenem. Corilagin and -(+)-Lyoniresinol-3 alpha-O-beta-d-glucopyranoside showed the best binding energy with DcaP protein having a docking score of about −261.74, and −238.19 respectively. Those two best protein-ligand complexes were assessed for MD simulation where the average RMSD value of 3.5 A° for Dcap-Corilagin and 3.0 A° for Dcap-(+)-Lyoniresinol-3 alpha-O-beta-d-glucopyranoside indicated their excellent stability. In-silico ADME analysis showed all four metabolites had a good estimated solubility (ESOL) between −3.56 and −6.32, a Log P range of 1.87–2.71 and they responded negatively in Blood-Brain Barrier, and CYP inhibition. Toxicity study showed that the expected new drugs, particularly Corilagin, are completely non-carcinogenic, non-toxic, and safe to use as therapeutic treatments against Acinetobacter baumannii. Therefore, all the predicted four metabolites could be used as a medication against Acinetobacter baumannii. As a result of the promising outcomes from our present study, we strongly recommend more in vivo analysis for experimental confirmation