Assessing spatial flood vulnerability at kalapara upazila in Bangladesh using an analytic hierarchy process

© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Floods are common natural disasters worldwide, frequently causing loss of lives and huge economic and environmental damages. A spatial vulnerability mapping approach incorporating multi-criteria at the local scale is essential for deriving detailed vulnerability information for supporting flood mitigation strategies. This study developed a spatial multi-criteria-integrated approach of flood vulnerability mapping by using geospatial techniques at the local scale. The developed approach was applied on Kalapara Upazila in Bangladesh. This study incorporated 16 relevant criteria under three vulnerability components: physical vulnerability, social vulnerability and coping capacity. Criteria were converted into spatial layers, weighted and standardised to support the analytic hierarchy process. Individual vulnerability component maps were created using a weighted overlay technique, and then final vulnerability maps were produced from them. The spatial extents and levels of vulnerability were successfully identified from the produced maps. Results showed that the areas located within the eastern and south-western portions of the study area are highly vulnerable to floods due to low elevation, closeness to the active channel and more social components than other parts. However, with the integrated coping capacity, western and south-western parts are highly vulnerable because the eastern part demonstrated particularly high coping capacity compared with other parts. The approach provided was validated by qualitative judgement acquired from the field. The findings suggested the capability of this approach to assess the spatial vulnerability of flood effects in flood-affected areas for developing effective mitigation plans and strategies

Distribution of darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae) in Malaysia

The Indo-Malayan region has Stenochiinae, Alleculinae, Amarygmini and Ulomini as the largest number of higher groups belonging to Tenebrionidae family. Since last few years, the forests of Southeast Asia especially Malaysia have changed dramatically as a result of logging and development that caused some changes in the wildlife more particularly insects. The distribution of insect species is widely existed in Malaysia and causing economic damage to the number of plants and agricultural crops. Therefore, this study was conducted on the distribution status of three subfamilies (Stinochiinae, Tenebrioninae and Diaperinae) of family Tenebrionidae especially considering darkling beetles in Malaysia as it has significant impact worldwide. All the insects were collected through different methods to observe their distribution and seasonal abundance. These traps were monitored monthly and a total number of Tenebrionids were calculated from all study sites. A total number of 120 beetles were collected represented 30 species and 17 genera. However, the most abundant genera were Tribolium and Promethis and some species rarely found in the area. The collected information regarding distribution of Tenebrionid will be helpful in future to manage their population below economic damage

دور التحالفات الاستراتيجية في تحقيق الابتكار التسويقي (دراسة ميدانية على القطاع المصرفي وقطاع الاتصالات السورية)

هدفت الدراسة إلى دراسة دور التحالفات الاستراتيجية بين قطاع المصارف وقطاع الاتصالات وتحقيق المصارف للابتكار التسويقي وذلك ضمن ظروف الحصار الاقتصادي والتكنولوجي المفروض على سورية. ولتحقيق ذلك تمّ صياغة فرضيتين رئيستين، واستخدم الباحث أسلوب الاستبانة لجمع البيانات الّتي تمّ تحليلها باستخدام اختبارات إحصائيّة أهمّها: اختبار الوسط الحسابي One- Sample T. test، واختبار الارتباط الثّنائي Pearson Correlation، وتحليل الانحدار البسيط. وقد توصل الباحث إلى عدّة نتائج أهمّها: يوجد تحالف استراتيجي جيد بين قطاع الاتصالات والمصارف محل الدراسة وهو يأخذ شكل من أشكال التعاون بين المنظمات غير المتنافسة لتحقيق أهداف مشتركة تخدم الطرفين بما ينعكس بشكل إيجابي على عجلة التنمية الاقتصادية في سورية سواء كان هذا التحالف لدخول الأسواق الجديدة أو في مجال التكنولوجيا، كما توجد علاقة طردية جيدة بين التحالفات الاستراتيجية بين قطاع المصارف وقطاع الاتصالات السورية وتحقيق الابتكار التسويقي في هذه المصارف سواء كانت هذه التحالفات الاستراتيجية لدخول أسواق جديدة أو في مجال التكنولوجيا

May Measurement Month (MMM) 2017: an analysis of blood pressure screening results in Bangladesh-South Asia

Elevated blood pressure (BP) is a growing burden worldwide, leading to over 10 million deaths each year. Based on the findings of the non-communicable disease Risk Factors Survey Bangladesh 2010, the prevalence of hypertension in adults 25 years or older in Bangladesh is 20.1%. The Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey, 2011 showed that approximately 50% of those affected are unaware of their hypertensive condition. The May Measurement Month 2017 (MMM17) is a global initiative of the International Society of Hypertension (ISH) aimed at raising awareness of high BP. We participated in MMM17 to raise awareness of hypertension screening and identify those with elevated BP who were unaware, and those on treatment with still uncontrolled hypertension. Following the standard protocol designed by the ISH, we participated in MMM17, an opportunistic cross-sectional survey of volunteers aged ≥18. It was carried out in May 2017. BP measurement, the definition of hypertension and statistical analysis followed the standard MMM protocol. Data were collected from 35 screening sites in 33 districts in Bangladesh. Personnel from several government and non-government organizations volunteered in this huge event. A total of 11 418 individuals were screened during MMM17, of which 5401 (47.3%) were found to have hypertension. Of 8365 individuals not receiving anti-hypertensive medication, 2348 (28.1%) were hypertensive. Of 3053 individuals receiving anti-hypertensive medication, 1594 (52.2%) had uncontrolled BP. MMM17 was the largest BP screening campaign undertaken in Bangladesh. This study suggests that opportunistic screening can identify significant numbers of people with raised BP. A periodic public health programme at a national level needs to be initiated to increase hypertension detection and control rate and thus for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter